>Though hard work is very often not rewarded, most rich people today
>work hard. The rentier is mostly a thing of the past. The ideal for
>the rich today is to work; even our socialites have a little handbag
>business on the side.
A month or so ago, every business owner in the Bay area rec'd an invitation to hang with Donald Trump -- Junior, that is. Free dinner 'n' all. There was an article in the business press about how well that went over -- it didn't for most people. A lot of it has to do with a deep-seated distrust of anyone who appears to riding on the inherited wealth of the parents. That's not see as legit in USers eyes. The classic film trope is always of a rich kid who's made fun of because he doesn't *do* anything and only redeems himself when he does.
Seems related to me: you're not worthy if that worth is mediated via one's parents' social position. You have to *earn* it -- and then we pretend that this *earning it* had nothing to do with all the connections one's social position/money bought.
I think I told the story from last year. There was an author on WMNF. He'd once been an evangelical christian, broke away and then went on to write a book critical of evangelicism. A woman phoned in and told him that everything he said about Christianity was worthless to her b/c he was just talking from his head. it was all book learning. To be real and worthy, he had to be talking from his heart. If it was mediated by rationality, thinking, thought -- no good. It had to be "in the gut". In fact, all his actual study of religion pretty much negated even his own experience of being a Christian at one time.
Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org