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richardf8This post is inspired by a things.
First there is this joke:
Q: What is an English Major's first words on getting a job after college?
A: "Do you want fries with that?"
Then there was a discussion over on Nightstar Zoo in which it was suggested that financial aid for college should be determined by the expected return on investment of a given field of study. That is, Engineering would be more likely to warrant a student loan than English.
Then there is the letter![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chipuni received from banner, suggesting that one of the goals of "Further Confusion" and its parent company should be "try and encourage higher learning, and the learning of skills that will allow people to be able to stand on their own two feet and earn a living." The focus of education here, once again, being utilitarian.
And lastly there'ssandramort who feels guilty about wanting to pursue a degree in English because it would entail a comittment of time and money and is not strictly necessary to her goal of homeschooling her children.
So, my question is this: what does this contempt for the humanities and emphasis on the utility of education say about us as a society? Where is it leading? Why would someone feel guilty about pursuing it, for crying out loud, especially when that someone is undertaking the moral education of the next generation? I am not about to undertake a defense of the humanities, but am about to go on the offense against a shift in values that, I believe, is cutting out the very soul of America.
I. American Values
America is in a state of moral decay. We've been hearing this for years from people like Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Who's responsible for this "moral decay?" They have lots of answers: feminists, gays, the ACLU, the Sierra Club, single mothers, terrorists, Janet Jackson's boob, and the litany goes on and on. There are lots of scapegoats out there for those who would do so to pin the blame on, but doing so sets our feet upon the path to holocaust.
Now I'm going to digress for a moment to tell a story, a legend of the great rivalry between Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai. Even the Christians in my audience should recognize the punchline though, since Jesus was of Hillel's school and taught similar precepts.
A gentile came to Rabbi Shammai saying "I will convert to Judaism if you can explain the Torah (teachings) to me while standing on one foot." Shammai called him a fool and sent him off. The same man appeared before Hillel and posed the same challenge. Hillel replied, while standing on one foot, "love your neighbor as yourself and do not unto others that which is hateful unto you, that is the whole of the Torah, all else is commentary, now go study." The man converted.
Hillel was able to give a precis of Jewish law in a single sentence. But what would such a precis of American law look like? If I were to look at our values, study our culture, and examine our behavior, what would I determine to be the Crown of American Morality?
Buy low, sell high. All else is commentary.
We are a society that measures virtue in terms of wealth, so the key to attaining the highest virtue is to amass the most wealth. We view poverty as a symptom of moral failing and wealth as an indicator of moral uprightness. This view rationalizes contempt for the poor and extols greed as the path to enlightenment.
By making material wealth the indicator of morality, we cleave the soul from itself and pack it off on a wild goose chase after a false god.
II. Education and Democracy
The purpose of the humanities - literature, history, philosophy, and religion - is to provide us with material with which we can engage in moral struggle and contemplate our place in the universe. Once upon a time, this was the goal of education. To train leaders with a solid understanding of human nature and solid critical thinking skills so that they could make wise decisions in critical situations.
In America, on the first Tuesday following the first Monday of the month of November, the American people are called upon to make wise decisions in critical situations. For this reason, a well educated populace is one of the underpinnings of democracy. One of the easiest ways to subvert a democracy is to deprive the populace of a good education. And that is why the same people who want us to believe that Feminism cause the Twin Towers to fall, are working assiduously to replace the curricula in our schools with a read and regurgitate regimen that extols "facts" over the ability to draw conclusions. This has been the crux of a veritable war over Social Studies standards in Minnesota, and is just one of the many issues with "No Child Left Behind."
Additionally, the emphasis of education has, increasingly, not been so much in turning out well educated human beings capable of making careful moral choices as it has been in turning out a skilled workforce and eager consumers. This utilitarian view is the sort of thing we condemned the Soviet Union for, but now, in service of our highest law, "buy low, sell high," we do precisely what they did to meet the goal of the five year plan.
Indeed, any regime that prefers to rule than to govern, will find its interests best served by a constituency that has grown accustomed, within its educational system, to receiving knowledge from on high, rather than receiving information which is then assessed and validated. How much easier it is to seduce the non-critical thinker to relinquish his liberties in exchange for an empty promise of security.
III. Narrative Control and Moral Choice.
Storytelling is the oldest of human entertainments. We look to stories to tell us who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. In them we find certain universal truths about being human. The stories we hear shape the way we respond to the world.
Some of the stories I grew up on included "All Quiet on the Western Front," "A Farewell to Arms," "1984," and "Brave New World." Could be that that's why I greet this administration with so much skepticism. Then of course, there was M*A*S*H, a show that I'll wager would never find a place on the air if it were to debut today. Oh and let's not forget Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and "The Final Cut." All of these stories told me the same thing: If you trust the government, they will kill you.
Controlling access to those stories or disseminating them helps shape the way our country thinks. It is scarcely any wonder then, that Bush's education secretary would call the NEA a terrorist organization. After all, they have access to all that young mindshare. By heavily regulating the stories are young people are told, by describing Pat Tillman as a valiant hero who gave his life for his country (dulce et decorum est pro patria mori and all that), rather than showing him as someone who gave up a promising career and his life for a bill of goods, and by seeing to it that nothing but insipid crap makes it onto the airwaves, we can be assured of soldiers to open markets, lower prices, whatever we need to do in service of that highest law: buy low, sell high.
Conclusion
A totalitarian government and a populace well educated in the liberal arts are two things that are at odds with each other. It should come as no surprise then, that as those who would rather rule than govern find themselves in the highest offices in the nation the first thing that is done is to devalue the liberal arts. By making things like listening to our leaders to see if their words withstand the tests of logic and truth seem foolish, and depriving us of narratives that might call attention to the fact that our leaders are not on our side, they fortify their roles as masters of the nation, and persuade us that our greatest role is that of a cog in the machine. They will take our lives as cheaply as they can get them, and sell our blood to the highest bidder, because buy low, sell high is the highest law of the land.
First there is this joke:
Q: What is an English Major's first words on getting a job after college?
A: "Do you want fries with that?"
Then there was a discussion over on Nightstar Zoo in which it was suggested that financial aid for college should be determined by the expected return on investment of a given field of study. That is, Engineering would be more likely to warrant a student loan than English.
Then there is the letter
chipuni received from banner, suggesting that one of the goals of "Further Confusion" and its parent company should be "try and encourage higher learning, and the learning of skills that will allow people to be able to stand on their own two feet and earn a living." The focus of education here, once again, being utilitarian. And lastly there's
sandramort who feels guilty about wanting to pursue a degree in English because it would entail a comittment of time and money and is not strictly necessary to her goal of homeschooling her children. So, my question is this: what does this contempt for the humanities and emphasis on the utility of education say about us as a society? Where is it leading? Why would someone feel guilty about pursuing it, for crying out loud, especially when that someone is undertaking the moral education of the next generation? I am not about to undertake a defense of the humanities, but am about to go on the offense against a shift in values that, I believe, is cutting out the very soul of America.
I. American Values
America is in a state of moral decay. We've been hearing this for years from people like Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Who's responsible for this "moral decay?" They have lots of answers: feminists, gays, the ACLU, the Sierra Club, single mothers, terrorists, Janet Jackson's boob, and the litany goes on and on. There are lots of scapegoats out there for those who would do so to pin the blame on, but doing so sets our feet upon the path to holocaust.
Now I'm going to digress for a moment to tell a story, a legend of the great rivalry between Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai. Even the Christians in my audience should recognize the punchline though, since Jesus was of Hillel's school and taught similar precepts.
A gentile came to Rabbi Shammai saying "I will convert to Judaism if you can explain the Torah (teachings) to me while standing on one foot." Shammai called him a fool and sent him off. The same man appeared before Hillel and posed the same challenge. Hillel replied, while standing on one foot, "love your neighbor as yourself and do not unto others that which is hateful unto you, that is the whole of the Torah, all else is commentary, now go study." The man converted.
Hillel was able to give a precis of Jewish law in a single sentence. But what would such a precis of American law look like? If I were to look at our values, study our culture, and examine our behavior, what would I determine to be the Crown of American Morality?
Buy low, sell high. All else is commentary.
We are a society that measures virtue in terms of wealth, so the key to attaining the highest virtue is to amass the most wealth. We view poverty as a symptom of moral failing and wealth as an indicator of moral uprightness. This view rationalizes contempt for the poor and extols greed as the path to enlightenment.
By making material wealth the indicator of morality, we cleave the soul from itself and pack it off on a wild goose chase after a false god.
II. Education and Democracy
The purpose of the humanities - literature, history, philosophy, and religion - is to provide us with material with which we can engage in moral struggle and contemplate our place in the universe. Once upon a time, this was the goal of education. To train leaders with a solid understanding of human nature and solid critical thinking skills so that they could make wise decisions in critical situations.
In America, on the first Tuesday following the first Monday of the month of November, the American people are called upon to make wise decisions in critical situations. For this reason, a well educated populace is one of the underpinnings of democracy. One of the easiest ways to subvert a democracy is to deprive the populace of a good education. And that is why the same people who want us to believe that Feminism cause the Twin Towers to fall, are working assiduously to replace the curricula in our schools with a read and regurgitate regimen that extols "facts" over the ability to draw conclusions. This has been the crux of a veritable war over Social Studies standards in Minnesota, and is just one of the many issues with "No Child Left Behind."
Additionally, the emphasis of education has, increasingly, not been so much in turning out well educated human beings capable of making careful moral choices as it has been in turning out a skilled workforce and eager consumers. This utilitarian view is the sort of thing we condemned the Soviet Union for, but now, in service of our highest law, "buy low, sell high," we do precisely what they did to meet the goal of the five year plan.
Indeed, any regime that prefers to rule than to govern, will find its interests best served by a constituency that has grown accustomed, within its educational system, to receiving knowledge from on high, rather than receiving information which is then assessed and validated. How much easier it is to seduce the non-critical thinker to relinquish his liberties in exchange for an empty promise of security.
III. Narrative Control and Moral Choice.
Storytelling is the oldest of human entertainments. We look to stories to tell us who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. In them we find certain universal truths about being human. The stories we hear shape the way we respond to the world.
Some of the stories I grew up on included "All Quiet on the Western Front," "A Farewell to Arms," "1984," and "Brave New World." Could be that that's why I greet this administration with so much skepticism. Then of course, there was M*A*S*H, a show that I'll wager would never find a place on the air if it were to debut today. Oh and let's not forget Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and "The Final Cut." All of these stories told me the same thing: If you trust the government, they will kill you.
Controlling access to those stories or disseminating them helps shape the way our country thinks. It is scarcely any wonder then, that Bush's education secretary would call the NEA a terrorist organization. After all, they have access to all that young mindshare. By heavily regulating the stories are young people are told, by describing Pat Tillman as a valiant hero who gave his life for his country (dulce et decorum est pro patria mori and all that), rather than showing him as someone who gave up a promising career and his life for a bill of goods, and by seeing to it that nothing but insipid crap makes it onto the airwaves, we can be assured of soldiers to open markets, lower prices, whatever we need to do in service of that highest law: buy low, sell high.
Conclusion
A totalitarian government and a populace well educated in the liberal arts are two things that are at odds with each other. It should come as no surprise then, that as those who would rather rule than govern find themselves in the highest offices in the nation the first thing that is done is to devalue the liberal arts. By making things like listening to our leaders to see if their words withstand the tests of logic and truth seem foolish, and depriving us of narratives that might call attention to the fact that our leaders are not on our side, they fortify their roles as masters of the nation, and persuade us that our greatest role is that of a cog in the machine. They will take our lives as cheaply as they can get them, and sell our blood to the highest bidder, because buy low, sell high is the highest law of the land.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-09 01:09 am (UTC)We are not amused by the co-opting of the ideally independant education system by either side of the spectruum (bible based creationism for example).
It's all crappy and there's dick I can do about any of it.
Mako
Frustrated Zzyzxian
no subject
Date: 2004-05-09 01:37 am (UTC)The graduate program in English at Binghamton University (whose Harpur College of the Humanities was the inspriration for Pfeiffer College of the Felinities) was divided pretty evenly between partisans on both sides of the fence. In short, if you actually cared more about literature than ideology (as was the case with both Morgan and me) you were in the crossfire between the two camps. Hence my "Crossfire" story line in November/December.
This is the reason my Masters was a terminal degree (I had originally intended to go for a PhD) and I'm doing computer stuff now.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-09 02:18 am (UTC)1. I'm about to graduate with a major in English and shudder to hear jokes like that. I empathize on anthropology, etc.
2. The title of your LJ cut got me thinking -- does that apply to porn? :)
3. Your subtitle "American Values" scared me. I thought you were about to endorse the organization.
4. "Even the Christians in my audience should recognize the punchline"? That's funny. Why did I think you were one?
5. This last week, I completed an 8-page exegesis paper on Matthew's and Mark's accounts of Jesus's teaching on divorce. It was there that I learned of Rabbi Shammai, who allowed it only in cases of adultery, in contrast to the school of Hillel, who allowed it for offenses as trivial as burnt cooking. I never learned that Jesus was of the latter school, but his teaching on divorce sure came closer to Shammai's.
6. I doubt that any nation, with the possible exception of the Vatican, has an enviable Crown of Morality. But maybe I'm just cynical and underexperienced.
7. I read (admittedly in a comic strip) that one study put the U.S. as the 17th most educated country. That may not sound bad out of 260-odd countries, but considering our wealth, I'd say it is.
8. All right, it's time I actually heard "The Wall" and not thought of it as the generic rock epic album. Yes, I'm that bad about pop culture.
9. Does your Latin phrase mean "Sweetness and decorum are for dead ancestors"?
10. Great essay! I'd admire you just for writing an organized one in the first place without a school assignment, but you said several things I feel I oughta quote somewhere (but probably won't, out of laziness).
no subject
Date: 2004-05-09 04:54 am (UTC)1. I have an MA in English. Most of the uses I've found for it have been amusement. Best piece of advice I've ever received careerwise is that it is wise to have both a profession and a skill.
2. Probably, but that was not what I was thinking. I believe curiosity drives people to click on cut-tags where the appearance of a long post in their friends list will just cause them to skip it.
3. Heh!
4. Because you haven't been reading closely enough to tease out the fact that I'm Jewish. My partner is Christian. It makes for interesting talk.
5. Jesus' teachings convince me that he had some Pharisaic training of some kind. I am not certain that it would have been with Hillel. In most cases, Jesus tends to fall on the side of Hillel rather than Shammai - this is especially true in matters of sabbath observance. Divorce is the glaring exception - Jesus is quite hardline on it. When Jesus and the Pharisees argue in the Christian Scripture, I tend to imagine that it is with students of Shammai that he is arguing.
6. When you are cynical and fully experienced, you will drop that exception.
7. I wouldn't place faith in a statistic that purports to measure something as notoriously subjective as "education."
8. Some stuff does actually become popular because it has artistic merit. Strange, but true.
9. Sweet and proper it is to die for [one's] country. Here is the full text of the poem I was referencing:
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
As you can see, I have a thing for wretched war poetry, especially in times when we are sending people to die for an exercise in futility.
10. I would love to be able to do this sort of thing for pay, but I'm too unwilling to curb my impulses for the sake of an editorial board, so I do it here.
Excellent Study :>
Date: 2004-05-09 09:37 am (UTC)Since you already went over a lot in detail, I'll just add a dab of what might be found as some of the contributors to this spiral downward, and it's gonna take a lot to slow it or even turn it around.
Instant Gratification. While it's probably always won out when compared with things earned over time, we now live in a society where it's far more attainable than ever before. And there are so many other factors that combine with this to contribute to these problems you spell out.
People don't seem to be getting the education they truly could before, at least in proportion to where the level should be. Therefore it's easier for the government to lean toward more totality. Can you even imagine a social upheaval and realization happening here, to the degree it happened in the USSR in which they reformed their government's flaws? It's supposed to be possible, as Abe Lincoln said... but could it happen? Well..... only if all the perfect factors were in place....such as insightful leadership (like Gorby was) and a capable populace (if educated sufficiently).
We also have gone from more social standards to more diverse ones, which actually undermines us greatly as a culture of 'americans'. This means that fewer can comprehend a sense of what should be right or good, and therefore more things move to dispute and/or court, rather than simple resolve. There's been too many years of the 'if it feels good, do it' mentality... but that's a part of the instant gratification theme. Too bad if one's "feel good" doesn't take other's into concern :/
A lot of the factors you mention, plus these, have also contributed to the devaluation of artist vs technician. Look at the way so many, even many artists themselves, are willing to download music and not pay the artist. :| There are legitimate reasons sometimes, like to preview and then buy, but most indicators suggest a lot of it goes on without much in the way of compensation for the artist.... and the r i aa isn't the answer either.. it's the overall fabric that needs re-stitching.
ah guess the best we can do is just keep trying to do our part, and try to inspire others too.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-09 10:40 pm (UTC)Praising the seemliness of young men's dead bodies
Sheenagh Pugh (http://www.geocities.com/sheenaghpugh/), my favorite poet, on victims of previous Middle-East wars.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-10 02:58 am (UTC)The traditional dates for Hillel's life have him dying around 10 AD, so Jesus probably wouldn't have had a chance to study with him directly. Shammai's life overlapped that of Jesus almost completely. Shammai died in 30 AD, so he would have been alive and kicking when Jesus was an adult. And with a living, much admired teacher, perhaps his school was especially vigorous then. The Columbia Encyclopedia (http://www.bartleby.com/65/sh/Shammai.html) has a couple of good brief pieces on Hillel and Shammai. They note that the school of Hillel became dominant after 70 AD, ie. after the destruction of the Temple--which means that before that, things were more up for grabs.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-10 03:05 am (UTC)I managed to mainain a quite liberal outlook while surrounded by very conservative people. Actually, the older I get the more liberal I get. I attribute that to being a voracious reader in my youth, and to my beloved grandfather, who was a former union organizer and president (PBA). I also don't tend to be a joiner and could give a rat's ass about the approval of others. Fortunately, I've found a career where I don't really have to be sociable. In fact, it is better if I'm not.
Regarding the humanities, it is an obvious fact that to the extent that people are unaware of our cultural heritage they lack a context in which to evaluate new stuff. We don't even have a cultural expection for the educational system to turn out well-rounded individuals. It seems that in our willfully ignorant President we have found the leader we deserve.
Further, I heartily disagree with the (currently popular) idea that job skills should be taught in graded schools. We currently have high school students taking classes in Word and Excel, with the idea that they are learning marketable skills. This couldn't be more wrong headed. High school is for fundamentals and cultural grounding, not for specific technologies. Any reasonably intellegent person can figure these things out in a couple of weeks on the job, and such training should be considered part of the cost of doing business. We are sacrificing our cultural heritage at the alter of transient business technology and corporate penny-pinching. So-called educators are suckers to fall for that trap. I do talk to educators as part of my job and, as a group, they are suckers for that kind of stuff.
It is interesting that I know a number of computer programmers and not a single one majored in computer science. They have degress in History, English, Art and other liberal arts subjects so to say that such an education does not prepare one for a productive life in a technological age is just plain silly.
Nice essay, though.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-10 04:23 am (UTC)As for Job Skills in schools. Educators are suckers for anything that helps them keep their funding. I don't view teaching Word and Excel as any more insidious than the typing classes that were part of our own education. These aren't just business skills, this will make them more productive in college too. They're not transient skills either -- the underlying metaphors of these programs have been in place since the days of Wordstar and SuperCalc, some 20 years ago, and I don't see those paradigms shifting any time soon. If they acquire the skills on Word and Excel they will be able to easily transfer them to whatever comes down the pipe.
What is insidious are internships at the Junior High and High School level. This is basically a scheme under which the school provides area business with free child labor. Of course, a friend's sister who interned at a veterinary clinic in Junior High went on to take a degree in zoology and is now working at a Zoo in the pacific NorthWest. But she was an exceptional case.
With my English degree, I have programmed:
1) A computer-aided testing system,
2) A database for process tracking in IP Licensing
3) A database backed web page
4) Dynamic web-comic automation software. (I wrote the software Cat-Tharsis runs on top of.)
And the ultimate irony? As an undergraduate English Major, I regularly tutored comp-sci majors who couldn't reason their way out of a wet paper bag. 2/3rds of the Computer Lab staff was English Majors.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-13 04:03 am (UTC)This has changed over the years, and some studies I have seen have been interesting in this regard. For example, this tidbit: "The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which examined the political views of commencement speakers at the nation's elite colleges and universities, found those with liberal ideas outnumbered conservative speakers 226-15 over a 10-year period." The ratio is about 15 to 1.
It appears that this same sort of ratio is approximately correct for the instructors themselves. I don't really have a problem with this, as long as material can be taught evenly and critical thinking still be a focus. But, from much evidence, this seems not to be happening.
Like you, I cannot speak from personal experience; and unlike you, I have no education to speak of. But it seems to me that English and Literature, in combination with other sorts of areas of study, make for well-rounded individuals. Oh, yes, that critical thinking is indeed critical!
Richard, I would differ from your assesment of morality in America being based upon material wealth. It's a fairly commonly expressed cynical perspective, but it is not what I see driving things. The media is just as likely to heap equal attention on the serial killer du jour, and fame is more of a yardstick than anything material.
Were your suggestion true, then those of great wealth would be consistently held up as moral. Obviously, the reverse is true in the US -- individuals who have achieved success are considered to be evil, perhaps even if proven innocent.
Morality, instead, seems to be a show conducted by the media for its own amusement, and many of us are apparently too happy to dance when those strings are pulled. The allusions of "corporate control" do not ring true to me; I am too familiar with the corporations involved. The media are a force unto themselves. And they have the sort of power that dictators of the past could only dream of.
I am -- back to your point -- in favor of English, and Literature, and History, and other similar areas. Most of us will not be able to learn just that and stop, though a small piece of "just that" can involve a lifetime of rich study -- but those that can, I cheer.
There are practicalities for most people -- and yet, most people are able to ignore them completely and still get by. ];-)
Incidentally, I have nothing against testing or memorization; these are excellent exercises for the mind as you know well. They cannot be everything, but must not be shied away from. Remember how much our predecessors relied upon their memories! And where the phrase "in the first place" came from.
===|==============/ Level Head
On Morality
Date: 2004-05-13 04:52 am (UTC)Regarding wealthy individuals who are considered evil: some are, like Ken Lay. We become especially angry with them because they've gotten around theodicy; they have cheated God, as it were. When we play by the rules, we get especially angry with people who win the game by subverting them.
But others, like Bill Gates or Donald Trump are demonized most often out of envy. (Unless you're a technology worker, in which case every security hole in Windows is a stain on Gates' soul). We love to hate them because we want to be them, but aren't. But on the matter of simple morality, we are more likely to present Bill Gates than Justin Timberlake as a role model to our children (so much for fame). And we WILL speak derisively to our children of the woman ahead of us in the grocery line who just paid for her order in food stamps, even if we know nothing of her personal virtues.
And again - I'm talking about cultural tendency here, not necessarily what you or I might do.
Re: On Morality
Date: 2004-05-13 07:46 pm (UTC)The United States is a country where even the "poor" have, on average, a standard of living that is astounding to much of the rest of the world's population. It is also a country where the principles of individual freedom and the rights and responsibilities that go with it are much-discussed. But, while a good argument could be made that our principles had a lot to do with fostering the environment where our properity could develop, they are NOT the same thing.
We hold material wealth in a bizarre sort of mixed love/hate relationship. This is curious enough, but I see no evidence to justify an assertion that, the more material wealth one has, the higher the morality that person is assumed to possess. It's often quite the opposite.
We have, as a country, much respect for those who forgo wealth for a higher cause.
You've picked Bill Gates, famous in many ways, and Justin Timberlake as counterpoints. But when you said "so much for fame", you seem to be overlooking that Gates is tremendously more famous than Timberlake. From time to time some local boob is exposed in the media, and is shortly covered up.
As I recall, no single individual gives more to charity than Bill Gates. Is that such a bad role model to hold up to young people? Now, you and I both understand the software perspective side of this, and I remember when he scammed Digital Research by telling them he had a working language when all he could show them were faked screens. He is an opportunist, he's done very well, and the results have been both good and bad.
He's an example that shows that one can achieve success in the US despite having the handicap of being born into a wealthy family.
===|===============/ Level Head