To: average joe who wrote (546 ) 1/15/2001 4:49:13 AM From: GUSTAVE JAEGER Read Replies (1) | Respond to Re: I think the real reason the demolibs cringe when they look at Rice or Powell is they shed their victim status and made something out of their lives. They can't be pigeon holed, manipulated but mostly coddled by people (like Clinton and Gore) to further their own political careers. "shed his/her victim status and make something out of his/her life" , an open environment is a prerequisite. You just can't "make something out of your life" AGAINST a hostile community. Success is actually a two-way street: a coopting process, somehow, must match an individual's will to succeed --and the higher you move up the social ladder the more relevant it becomes. Obviously, such coopting mechanics are usually blurred by the intertwining feedbacks between the individual's positive demeanour and his/her environs' receptiveness.... In the case of a "success story", both the individual's and society's interactions make it up to a virtuous circle, whereas in the case of a "dropout failure", growing antagonisms pile up in a vicious circle --to the ultimate detriment of the rebel....Zeitgeist at the time of her graduation in Soviet studies: a coupla years earlier, Stanford's authorities would never have thought of a black woman to fill the post. See how a supposedly fair uphill struggle can turn into a nasty brick wall impossible to circumvent --even for the pushiest outsiders?
