Past Generations Followed the Bootstrap Ethic of Horatio Alger
Our grandparent’s generation knew that succeeding in life was up to the individual. It came from will and spirit, already embedded within the moral outlook. Coming from a middle-class family was not a prerequisite as it is today, as if the material symbols of upscale homes and fancy cars will make everything fall into place.
Strong families came first in the heyday of Horatio Alger, Jr. and his novels. Character meant everything for those who wanted to climb out of poverty. Examples abounded in real life for those who wanted to become successful.
It was part of the American Dream, which included figures like Henry David Thoreau, who graduated from Harvard with a first-class ticket to any profession, but who ultimately saw that inner happiness doesn’t come from amassing money and toys throughout life. Colleges today provide lightweight academics and student loan debt, but no guarantee of authentic human success. Going directly into business or politics might be a better ticket to the good life.
The same stepping stones to getting ahead are now just about all coming from various tax-funded government and private charity programs, including free meals, coats, housing assistance, and myriad other income redistribution schemes. This form of secularism has pushed back the “free” moral influence of the church that once worked hand in hand with the inspirational novels of Alger.
In his essay “Human Excellence and Dependency: Who Built What?” Glenn Fairman argues that America’s newly fashioned investment in socialism has put into place very expensive social success systems that are hollow and doomed to failure:
It was not long ago that the zeitgeist of America was the Horatio Alger story, a patchwork of tales serving as the reigning motivational compass pointing towards individual success. It was the time of the Bootstrap Ethic: the notion that a man was limited only by his own zeal and perseverance in service to his lofty goal.
How many magnificent ideas were mulled over and refined while cleaning offices or flipping hamburgers? How countless are the fledgling businesses that found their genesis in a garage or kitchen; and by virtue of investing the hard-won nest egg, these gamblers wagered all for the sake of a far-off vision? How many industrious hands have spun straw into gold?
