Jane's Love Child

I want to have it. Writing like this just makes the rest of us look bad. I think we should confiscate her spell-checker so that we can giggle at her silly mispellings. It would sure make me feel much better.

Given that Mr Delong is at the apex of a group I once described as "one of the most radically inegalitarian societies to be seen since Louis XVI fled Versailles", I am surprised at his readiness to attribute such dreadful motives to the rich. I've had a taste of both academia and investment banking. The dominance hierarchy of banking is so strong that if you could get the bankers out of their pinstripes for an hour, you could have filmed your average pitch meeting for the Discovery Channel. Yet when it comes to hyper-obsession with invisibly fine status distinctions, no banker could hold a candle to the average academic--or journalist, for that matter.

I am quite positive that Mr Delong's enjoyment of his prestigious professorship is substantially augmented by its position high in the academic firmament, twinkling light years above adjunct professors at Missoula Central Community College. Would he describe that emotion as spite for those less fortunate than himself? For after all, the existence of a pyramid for them to be at the top of is what makes him and his colleagues successful academics, rather than cranks with an odd hobby of publishing monographs almost no one reads. Should we punish them for their spiteful indulgence? Or should we recognize that it is normal, even laudable, to desire success?