Why So Many Ambitious Men And So Little Lofty Ambition Are To Be Found In The United States 11-8-2010 (Part Two)

 George Washington found more profit in playing Cincinnatus than Alexander, or Caesar. When other generals were elected President, they followed Washington's example. Martial glory took a backseat to material accumulations. (Remember Washington was a successful businessman.)

Capitalism supposedly rewards ambition, but ambition needs a goal. I lost my goals a long ago. Plans I had for my practice went awry last year when I lost sight of their purpose. Whether I might have gotten them back in 2010 will be one of the many things that will follow me for the rest of my life. I feel keenly what de Tocqueville writes here:

...Thus in proportion as men become more alike, and the principle of equality is more peaceably and deeply infused into the institutions and manners of the country, the rules of advancement become more inflexible, advancement itself slower, the difficulty of arriving quickly at a certain height far greater. From hatred of privilege and from the embarrassment of choosing, all men are at last constrained, whatever may be their standard, to pass the same ordeal; all are indiscriminately subjected to a multitude of petty preliminary exercises, in which their youth is wasted and their imagination quenched, so that they despair of ever fully attaining what is held out to them; and when at length they are in a condition to perform any extraordinary acts, the taste for such things has forsaken them.

Why So Many Ambitious Men And So Little Lofty Ambition Are To Be Found In The United States

I can say it is no fun finding the purpose of one's life having no meaning. Before the Great Recession, I would have said our greatest social issue was quality of life. Now, it feels like survival is our only criterion for quality of life. I am no longer certain that ambition pays well for most of us. I had a nephew who turned down a chance at Princeton, and I think now he made the correct choice. I hope he has his own success. I hope he avoids the state of mind that led me into a such state of miserableness I sought self-destruction. I think the younger generations may surprise us with the humility of their ambitions.

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