Larry Correia and the American Dream
An article from Monster Hunter Nation well worth reading on the futility of trying for financial success:
Hacker News Writes:
“Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something.
“Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on.
“Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good about themselves. Some keep going until they hit the center bullseye, then they give speeches or write blog posts about ‘meritocracy’ and the salutary effects of hard work.
“Poor kids aren’t visiting the carnival. They’re the ones working on it.”
Larry Correia replies with verve and authority:
That’s defeatist horseshit, and another great example that just because somebody crafts an analogy it doesn’t mean it makes sense.
I was one of the poor kids who worked that carnival. I grew up poor. And not collect a government check poor, I mean farm poor, which has all the disadvantages of being poor but with the added benefit of constant backbreaking manual labor for little to no reward. I suppose I’m supposed to be bitter about that and be a good little communist or something, but instead I still got a bunch of throws at the dartboard. Go figure.
My family literally lost the farm. I moved out when I was 16 and my family moved to a different state. My first throw missed, when my own little herd of steers I’d been raising in the hopes of selling for college money got tetanus and died. Oh well. Later I managed to get a scholarship because I was good at judging dairy cows in FFA. I kid you not.
He continues in like vein, including a bit of biography of which I was previously unawares. My admiration for the man grows.
Please read the whole thing.
https://monsterhunternation.com/2023/05/02/the-futility-of-trying/
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
