Lex at Neptunus Lex ("The unbearable lightness of Lex. Enjoy!") remarked upon an article at Defense Policy.
Money quote(s):
"(T)he authors stray into the dual and anti-republican traps of elitism and credentialism: Intelligence is only loosely correlated with socioeconomic attainment. And unrewarded genius, as Calvin Coolidge noted, is almost a proverb. In any case IQ is not a birthright; even among the brightest parents there is a tendency for their descendants’ intelligence to revert towards the mean. Sure, Muffy and Biff may get accepted into all the better prep schools and get preferential admission to the Ivies based upon parental largesse, but this is no guarantee of future success. The stories of scions and heirs who have squandered their parents fortunes upon inheritance are so manifest as to be almost unremarkable. The halls of Congress are full of highly credentialed graduates from Harvard, Yale and Columbia.
And look where that has got us." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)
The Army is a solidly middle and working class organization, the American yeomanry, if you will. While the upper-middle and upper socioeconomic quintiles pitch in during a more general panic, er, mobilization, year in and out the membership comes from those unafraid to work with their hands.
8/9
