Ivy League Conservatives

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 We sure are. Here’s a section from the Washington Post op-ed, with my pithy commentary interspersed:

[...]But they are not always nice people.

You know what I mean by “nice.” I mean the kind of “nice” that involves showing compassion not merely because membership in community service groups demands it. The kind of “nice” that involves sharing notes with a student who is sick or lending a textbook to a friend who doesn’t have one. The kind of selfless, genuine “nice” that makes this world a better place — but won’t get you accepted to college.

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve just taken out $45K in loans to make it to class this year, I don’t really feel like sharing my notes with someone who’s too hung over to make it into class, especially in a large lecture where the grades are curved and it’s possible for an 85/100 to be a low C. And after taking out those $45K in tuition loans and paying another $700-$1500 for this semester’s books, I’d at least like the luxury of reading my $200 textbook solo. You want nice? Talk to us after class. But in a room full of overachieving valedictorians, at a university that accepts less than 20% of the thousands who dare to even apply, the classroom is a battlefield.

Of course, top universities accept hundreds of individuals who have demonstrated the highest levels of citizenship. These teenagers have volunteered in more food banks, sponsored more fundraisers and lobbied more officials than any previous generation. They earn, rightfully, the gratitude of their communities and the plethora of honors that come with it. Colleges at the top of U.S. News and World Report’s rankings would balk at the notion that these students are anything but the best and the brightest.

I’m not saying different. I’m saying that sometimes some of these students will denounce world hunger but be unfriendly to the homeless. They will debate environmental policy but never offer to take out the trash. They will believe vehemently in many causes but roll their eyes when reminded to be humble, to be generous and to “do what is right.”

In Philadelphia, I was once at a gas station with a coworker and a Drexel student. We both worked two restaurant jobs and she had offered to take me home since we’d gotten out late and she had a car, but had to fill up her gas tank first. A homeless man approached us as we were gassing up and asked for money. We said that we didn’t have any to give. He slammed his fist against the hood of her car, yelling, “But you have a CAR! You HAVE money!” He was bigger than the two of us and his fists were balled aggressively. Had the police not immediately arrived to chase him off, it could have been a bad situation. When homeless people expect handouts from a couple of college kids who work two jobs to attend top-tier universities, I’ve a right to be unfriendly. And don’t get me started on world hunger.

It is these people, though, who often climb America’s ladder of success. They rise to the top, partly on their own merits yet also partly on the backs of equally deserving but “nicer” people who let them steal the spotlight. Before they, or we, know it, they are the politicians and corporate executives subverting the very moral positions they espouse. They are the (frighteningly) many figureheads who purport to be leaders even as they embarrass our country and mar our history books.

Ah yes, a jibe at ruthless politicians, most likely Republican ones. How original, and ‘nice’.

Ms. Rawls, you’re right. The Ivy League is not always a nice place. The people in it can be callous, snobby, underhanded and downright evil. So can many other people, who haven’t been educated. Now that I’m thinking of it, the world isn’t a nice place. To rest the ‘meanness’ of the world’s population squarely on the shoulders of Ivy League students and graduates is a pretty impressive feat of hyperbole, even for a former Princeton Tiger. 

Ivy League graduates can–and do–change the world, for better and for worse. We’re taught in school to find loopholes and win at all cost. But being ‘nice’ won’t solve world hunger, or poverty, or political corruption. It won’t end wars or make people like you, because the rest of the world isn’t nice. If you’re robbed, and a crazed criminal’s got a gun pointed at you, being nice isn’t going to stop you from being robbed or worse. Rose-colored glasses work wonders in the safe, hallowed halls of our beloved Ivy League institutions, but such naivete doesn’t fly in the real world. 

[H/T IvyGate, who also rips on Rawls pretty  well]