The key point is that the four great social trends of the past half-century--the decline of marriage, of the work ethic, of respect for the law and of religious observance--have affected Fishtown [ie the "lower classes"] much more than Belmont [ie the "upper classes"/cognitive elite]. As a consequence, the traditional bonds of civil society have atrophied in Fishtown. And that, Murray concludes, is why people there are so very unhappy--and dysfunctional.
In the interview below, Murray makes the point that he specifically did not attempt to explain why these events occurred; he is interested in providing the data and "starting a discussion." He does offer one forceful comment, namely, that it is the height of soft bigotry (or is it nihilism and indifference?) that the "upper classes," despite following certain behaviors that virtually guarantee the absence of dysfunctional and miserable living, do not demand or even come close to encouraging such poverty avoiding behavior in the "lower classes." Put another way, the upper classes know and live the attitudes that largely prevent social pathologies and poverty, and yet they do not share them with others.
Chris, I'm glad there are people in the world (I.e. you) smart enough to read books about social class so that I don't have to :). And I sincerely hope you're rolling your eyes right now the same way you used to in high school when I would shirk my responsibility to be a well-informed citizen, haha.
ReplyDeleteNOW blog about freaking med school or your residency or whatever you're doing now in... Texas? Right? You should read my uncle's blog; he's an ob-gyn in Seattle and he posts little blurbs about interesting or thought-provoking cases. It's on the sidebar of my blog under 'clinic today'.