Spoken Like A True Thin Man, To A True Fat Man

http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/28/greater-fools-didnt-built-that/

This article caught my eye after reading up on the greater fool theory from Sunday's THE NEWSROOM.  What kept my attention was the shear hubris of Mr. Haverly, which is endemic of most on the right.  It is particularly blatant in Mr. Haverly's case because from the looks of it, he has been shaving for a few months, and is the product of having been the "fat man" for many years.  His resume is impressive enough but if examined from say the view point of a "liberal" it is pretty easy to see the "skinny man" even if he is wafer thin.

By no means am I out to attack education.  I am after all in education, but let us first look at Mr. Haverly's. According to the snapshot resume at the bottom of his article he is an alumnus of American University.  That is nothing to scoff.  He most certainly received one of the best, if not prestigious, educations afforded to the less than royal in America..shall we say average "fat man." He no doubt studied under some of the best in the country in his field, and he no doubt worked hard in his classes.Using Reagan's "thin man, fat man" example I would, however, like pose a set of questions to Mr. Haverly.

Would not those that preceded Mr. Haverly to American University be considered the thin man?  They are in fact the ones who founded American's reputation.  Mr. Haverly can only add to it. It is after all the university's reputation, along with the connections made there by Mr. Haverly are mostly likely what got him his job as a Congressional aid and ultimatly his writing job.

The student is, in fact, only as good as his teacher..or professor, so are they not the thin man?  Yes, the professors of American might drive Volvos and sport large salaries, but hard time are not soon forgotten by many academics.  My guess is plenty of times as lowly graduate they hoped their Pinto station wagons would start so they could get home from the library and eat a PB&J.  What of the teachers Mr. Haverly had in high school? Grade school?  What did they drive? What did they eat?  Even if Mr. Haverly went to the best private schools in the country, the answers would not much and very little. Mr. Haverly did have to clean something of economic principles to understand who Ronnie Reagan was right? They studied Reagan so Mr. Haverly can quote him in a blog

What of the Congressman that Mr. Haverly worked?  Is he not a thin man in the sense that Mr. Haverly left his office with plenty of political experience to write for a political blog such as The Daily Caller? Will The Daily Caller not turn thin when a better, more lucrative, less stressful job appear?  Going with Mr. Haverly will be all of the experience, connections, and insider information he picked up.  What of that job?

Conservatives (if you want to call me a liberal on this issue I will not take offense....call me a bleeding hearted liberal for all I care on this one) forget that they stand on the shoulders of those that come before AND the heads of plenty more. My question to those who are "self made" or the "fat man" is always: Did you really earn all of that?  Did you sweep the floors of American University so that others like yourself might enjoy a clean classroom?  Did you restore your own hard drive when you crashed it a week before finals?  Was it you that keep the heat on for those cold Washington nights and the AC blowing on the muggy days in July?  Was that Mr. Haverly behind the counter in the dinning hall serving food to the kids who barely notice? My guess is the answer would be "No" to all of the above.

Those who sit in ivy towers, like Mr. Haverly and plenty of other conservative (let's not be too mean spirited here), are quick to quail those who make the argument I just made with comments that typically contain the words "bitter" or "try harder." Even these are false when looking at their own record.  Words like "bitter" and "try" are usually spoken by people who are far removed from those in which they speak. They know little of those who take a job so they can afford college. College,for them, at a near Ivy was a given. The money for it was an after thought.  They find the notions of trying to get a job foreign. They have always had one lined up. Their parents may only know such words from the lofty side as well, which puts them further from the Pinto station wagons and PB&J days of even the professors they admired at the Ivy (or near Ivy) League schools.  It puts them further from those who truly see flipping burgers as an opportunity from picking fruit, or cleaning lady as a way of grounds grew and out of the weather.

The Mr. Haverlys of the do not stop those people who happily scarf baloney and see a good day as their car starting.  Yeah, we thin men of the world might be a little bitter.  We might look up every once in awhile and want what you have, but then we see how you look down on us a lose all interest.  Why? Because we wouldn't dare look down at someone who is working as hard or harder than us.  We liberals, or at least those who haven't forgotten where we come from, do not stand on the heads of those below us.  While we recognize that we stand on sholders, we typically are reaching down to help more onto our own.  That very fact is the difference between a conservative and a liberal..or at least those of us who haven't forgotten where we come from