In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a
generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest,
and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups.
They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are
responsible, safety-conscious, and mature. They feel no compelling need
to rebel—not even a hint of one. They not only defer to authority; they
admire it. “Alienation” is a word one almost never hears from them.
They regard the universe as beneficent, orderly, and meaningful. At the
schools and colleges where the next leadership class is being bred, one
finds not angry revolutionaries, despondent slackers, or dark cynics
but the Organization Kid.
