Standards. And Rebellion Therefrom.

I generally dislike standards, be they cultural or otherwise, as contrary to human potential. In my experience, supported by scientific research, people are what they believe themselves to be. Those who are confident in their ability to be successful generally are successful, as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Children who are told by teachers and parents that they are intelligent and capable of solving problems show statistically higher levels of intelligence and problem-solving ability than children who do not receive such encouragement. "Fake it until you make it" does work as a personal business model, and "God helps those who help themselves" speaks for itself as a truism.

In general, conformity to standards and norms is a primary restrictor on human potential and advancement; in science, technology, medicine, politics, and any other field that you'd care to chose, advancements are made by INDIVIDUALS, rather then by SOCIETIES. As a parallel to my prior thoughts on culture, the primary reason that America has led the world in science, technology, and industry for the last century grows directly from America's lack of artificial social constructs (cultural or socio-religious) which define and restrict individuals to a specific social caste. America worships ABILITY. Regardless of who your parents are, regardless of their social station, in America, if you can, you may. And if you are good enough, we will help you. Academic scholarships, for example, and the greater the potential you show, the more you will be helped to reach it. A prodigy might be born in a Guam slum, or a West Virginia mountaintop, or in South Jersey, and the American System will find that child anywhere within our sphere of influence. We provide them with the best available education, and put them to work at whatever field in which they excel. If you have it in you to shine, not only will you be allowed to, you will be asked to, regardless of prior social or political associations. Without rigid stratification of social levels, American society is - by Old World standards - the height of chaos and disorganization. But make no mistake: the melting pot is boiling, but the cream is rising to the top.

The end result is America's propagation of two things: mediocrity, and brilliance. American mediocrity is very banal, and appears even to be sinking. Bad music, worse movies, "reality TV," veneration of pop-culture icons; the United States middle class is becoming increasingly illiterate, uneducated, and despondent under it's own weight. Apathy and welfare. Illness without healthcare. Unemployment arising from unemployability. These are facts of life of the vast middle class: While the System does nothing to hold them down, it also does nothing to lift them up from what their own means will provide them.

But the brilliant. Oh, the brilliance they show. Look at the technological and industrial growth of just the last 100 years. Digital computers were first invented in the 1940s. You can now by a computer comparable to those first models for $1. They used to take up an entire room. Now they don't even need batteries, so long as there is a nearby light-source to draw from. Jet engines were only a theory a century ago. Now you can build one in you garage. All of this the work of great minds, working free from external constraints. Einstein believed that he did his best work in "productive isolation," and fled from his native Germany (to Cal Tech in Pasadena, California) when the German government their began to take issue with his Zionist views. One of the greatest minds in human history had to flee his homeland, because of the homeland's cultural developments. Like so many other people of ability in the last 200 years, he was feeling repressed, held-back, and unappreciated in the Old World. So packed up his bat and ball and came to the New. Thanks for coming, Al; you were American culture and history boiled into one man.

Take, by contrast, China. Theoretically, Chinese economics, industry, and science draw from the world's largest talent pool. Don't tell me that genius children are not being born every day. Don't tell me that most of that nation's populace living in medieval conditions is from lack of viable alternatives. The simple fact is that China has been locked into rigid social caste system for 2500 years. It has been free of much in the way of revolutions, but the lack of revolutions includes the scientific and economic as well as the political. Thank you, Confucius, for guaranteeing that one of the worlds greatest power-bases has stood stagnant for millenia; we'd all be speaking Chinese if not for you. But there was you, and they bought in to you, and the end result is a nation who's last great contribution to science and technology was gunpowder. (Even that didn't make it far beyond use in fireworks until the more dynamic and open-minded nations of Europe got their hands on it.) Thank you Chairman Mao, for stepping in and setting up a new regime every bit as stagnant, rigid, and stratified as Confucianism. You, as a nation, are the paradigm of the "Culture" that America is so blissfully free of, and prospering for the lack. You have millenia of tradition, where that tradition is a stone around your neck, anchoring you against any change in the cultural, political, or scientific status quo. Even with a billion backs to bear the load, you cannot get out from under its weight. Truly you are a model for other nations to take heed of.

The point of all this: REBEL. Let no one dictate the limits of your growth, or the extent of your capabilities. Great minds are those that break free from constraints, because such constraints preclude an individuals rise to greatness.