I was listening to NPR today...

Why is it that the most vocal and adamant about the principle of self-reliance are often, if not mostly, those who have grown up under circumstances requiring no self-reliance? How many rags-to-riches Republicans do you know? Or more tellingly, how many riches-to-riches Republicans do you know that cry out for self-reliance?

South Carolina Young Republicans, with broken bootstraps
from the harsh travails of self-reliance.

The immediate rejoinder points the equal alienation of northeastern, wealthy arm-chair liberals who also know little about the struggles of the poor.

And the obvious resulting question is, what's with all the rich people deciding what to do about the poor?


Note: I'm not actually denying the crucial need for a culture and politics fundamentally grounded in self-reliance and accountability. I DO find it ridiculous though, how the demographics do seem to map onto such beliefs. (Any poor, uneducated libertarians out there?) I also get irritated, when during an NPR segment about families with two full-time jobs who are unable to avoid heat for their homes, a caller decides to go on a long diatribe about how he is self-reliant and that, essentially, all poverty and want is the failure of individual responsibility.