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Being aware of your surroundings does not demonstrate intelligence. Animals are aware of their surroundings. Lower life forms are aware of their surroundings. I wonder what school this guy went to - LOL
How about this... being aware of your surroundings and responding quickly to avoid a threat is an important survival trait to have. Those life forms that don't have have the ability to deal with a threat swiftly become lunch meat to predators and exit the gene pool. - Darwin 101
Life forms that are aware of their surroundings and passively do nothing about it remain just... lower life forms at the bottom of the food chain. Are you a lower life form?
How about this... being aware of your surroundings and responding quickly to avoid a threat is an important survival trait to have. Those life forms that don't have have the ability to deal with a threat swiftly become lunch meat to predators and exit the gene pool. - Darwin 101
Life forms that are aware of their surroundings and passively do nothing about it remain just... lower life forms at the bottom of the food chain. Are you a lower life form?
Still hasn't proved intelligence, just genetic adaptation.
Still hasn't proved intelligence, just genetic adaptation.
Well in terms of human beings, those who are the most intelligent seem to have the best "luck" and little "bad luck" in life. And a further investigation into the good luck and bad luck events usually shows that those outcomes were the result of their personal choices. Good luck is a result of smart and sensible life choices. Bad luck is the outcome of stupidity and thoughtlessness behaviour.
Sadly though, more people of lesser IQ and learning are making more babies these days than those who should. And that's part of the reason our planet is in the trouble that it's in right now. That and there bing way too many human beings now.
We have a deeper history than many other parts of the country, and while others chose to push west in hopes of a better life we stayed behind and accepted what we had. The English cultural heritage is stronger than other parts of the country (however, I think we must accept that the main parent of American culture in general is English culture, though it has become unique over time), because New England (and the other original colonies) was settled by the English directly, while the ones west of the east coast were, for the most part, settled by American citizens. We are more crowded than other parts, and we are more reserved. Some see it as unfriendliness or arrogance, but it's just a way of life. Some say we are less patriotic for the US in general, but it's the reservation again. We are just as glad to be Americans as you are, even if it doesn't mean we are going to display it everywhere in a public fashion. If you don't like the way Bostonians are, you don't have to come here, but if you take us seriously, then we will take you seriously too. And we are not better, even if it seems we think we are. It's simply that each part of the country is unique, and we are proud of ours, though we can learn to appreciate other parts as well.
The culture of New England is nothing like that of the UK here in 2012. The reservedness is completely different, as is the humour and other characteristics.
Source: me. I am British and lived in MA for quite some time. It was nothing like the UK.
I skimmed the thread but didn't find the OP giving a clear explanation of what behaviors he actually finds objectionable. [Maybe it is there, so my apologies it I missed it.]
I've lived in several parts of the US and travel for work all over the world including the US and, because of my work, am an observer of cultural differences. Let me give you my sense of what you might be seeing and why.
When I first moved to Boston as a student, there were remnants a clearer class structure than existed in most other parts of the US. The Brahmins, descendants of wealthy families, were important as donors and lived in places like Beacon Hill and Brattle Street and sent their kids to places like Shady Hill and BB&N and Philips Andover or Exeter. I bought a house in Cambridge and was told that the neighborhood had been "Lace Curtain Irish." These were the Irish families who worked in the houses of the WASPs on Brattle Street but had enough money, I guess, for lace curtains and were, I guess, upwardly mobile. Waiters and waitresses and people in the hardware store were rude -- being in the position of serving marked them as in a serving (and thus lower) class. Over the years, Jews and then East and South Asians have flooded the elite institutions (Harvard, MIT, Amherst, Williams) that were once largely reserved for WASPs (a lot of this happened well before my time, but I'm giving you historical sweep). With the various economic booms, new money made by non-WASPs has diminished the Brahmins to near irrelevance. They are neither prominent nor important to society. The Institute for Contemporary Art was started and funded by Jews who were shut out of the MFA, which was a WASP preserve. But the new money has changed that. Now if you look at donors to the MFA's new additions, lots of them are Jewish; I suspect the next big wave will be Indians and Chinese. Waiters and waitress don't really feel the same class distinctions that were here when I first moved here. But, there are still remnants of a class structure that didn't exist in the same way in say, San Francisco. We had a bright, hard-working young woman from a small Carribbean Island who worked as a nanny for us when we lived in New York. When we decided to move to Cambridge, we asked her to move with us and she declined for family reasons, but also because she felt that Boston was a racist place. She came with us for the first month or so and declared that Cambridge was not, in her opinion, racist but very accepting.
What you do see is elite institutions that breed elitist people. At one level, many people who went to Yale as undergrads, did a stint at Oxford, and then finished graduate work at Harvard do think they are intellectually superior to mere mortals (whether or not that is true in their case). And, Harvard, MIT, Tufts, BU, etc. have become central to the Boston economy. The technology industry (such as it is), the biotech industry, the VC industry here, and the finance industry are all heavily driven by MIT and Harvard (especially HBS). Lots of ideas, patents, people come from those places. We don't have lots of normal businesses because the real estate is too expensive to run them here, which again means you get lots of highly educated folk working in Boston relative to other places. As Braunwyn pointed out, scientists are elitist but only more broadly -- they respect other scientific contributors regardless of background based instead upon the quality of their contributions. And, over the years, finance has become a lot more meritocratic. But, meritocracy breeds a belief among the successful in their own capabilities and performance.
Perhaps because of the class structure devolving in large part into a perceived meritocracy, people in the Northeast probably define themselves more by their occupations than people in other parts of the US or Europe. So, highly educated people who have risen in what they see as a meritocracy will tend to think they are particularly important contributors to society. For example, people who get tenure at Harvard tend to think they are really something special (and the world often treats them as such). Maybe, as Michael Lewis suggested in his excellent baccalaureate speech at Princeton this year, those who have succeeded in the meritocratic game overestimate the contribution of skill versus luck to their position in the world.
Finally, these people whether professors or biotechies or techies or VCs are, to some extent, people of the mind and they value others who are thinking. I have found a higher proportion of people who are intellectually alive in Boston than in any other metropolitan area I've spent time in. I've met lots of nice people all over the world, but fewer who are questing intellectually or trying to figure things out in the same way. For me, it makes Boston interesting. But, someone who values people who are intellectually pushing boundaries and open to learning new things may make others whose quest is to make a nice life for their families, for example, feel less valued.
I have happily lived in the Boston area for part of my adult life. I have felt that people were less friendly and open in Boston than in New York (where I also lived). But in both cases, I think the desire to achieve and succeed make people so busy. A friend of mine used to say that when he arrived in Cambridge, he went on to Cambridge Standard Time. He automatically was two weeks behind. That sense of urgency makes people less open to forming new friendships than might be the case in other places.
By the same token, folks in the group I described might find the sense of warmth they experience in Texas or Omaha be be warm and friendly but with no depth if the warmth was not based on anything about them. As such, they might find the generalized friendliness and warmth, especially when it is not always sincere superficial ("Bless her heart. She's dresses like a homeless person.") I introduced a couple who got married. The woman was from Texas and I was something in the wedding. She assigned one of her sorority sisters from her university in Texas to me to make sure I had a good time for the long weekend. This very well put together young woman had 90 times the social skills I have and was pretty, warm, solicitous, and charming all weekend and I definitely had a good time. I'm sure that I was an interesting trophy but I have no idea whether she actually liked me or not. So, it all seemed pretty superficial.
Neither my wife nor I are from New England and she's not from the US. Yet, we have found people in Boston to be quite friendly over time. We've made many good and non-superficial friends. But, it takes time and sometimes may involve being part of one of the high status groups. I'm not sure.
Sorry for the long exegesis. It's not that the OP really cares about the answer to his/her question. But, I hope this is helpful to others.
I have found a higher proportion of people who are intellectually alive in Boston than in any other metropolitan area I've spent time in. I've met lots of nice people all over the world, but fewer who are questing intellectually or trying to figure things out in the same way. For me, it makes Boston interesting. But, someone who values people who are intellectually pushing boundaries and open to learning new things may make others whose quest is to make a nice life for their families, for example, feel less valued.
Overall, you wrote a very insightful statement. I do agree with the portion quoted, but there was a side effect that you didn't elaborate on. I've met way too many Bostonians that were either obsessed with status or "being interesting". So many people were deathly afraid of sounding stupid, so instead of speaking their mind, they chose not to speak at all. Sometimes I felt like 1 out of 5 people were mutes. Maybe it was because of the social circles I encountered which mainly consisted of "Townies". I hadn't actually met anyone from Harvard or MIT. Before I moved to Cambridge I was looking forward to philosophical & intellectual conversations, but I had 0 the entire time I was there. Instead, I met groups of pretentious, surprisingly superficial individuals. Overall, Cambridge was a disappointment to me, I'm glad I left.
womanpower, because I am in some of those circles, I've been fortunate to meet fascinating people (Nobel Prize winners, famous and not famous but really bright academics, interesting consultants, CEOs, VCs, and other folks with real depth but no high status or exalted role...). There is another group of Cambridge/Somerville folks who are alteranativey-touchy-feely "thanks for sharing kind" of folks who feel compelled somehow to turn nouns into verbs (dialoging, efforting, ... ). Some of them are just plain vapid but some are actually pretty deep, though not in the analytical/intellectual way. It's too bad you didn't get to meet interesting folks or somehow they fell mute in your presence [academic types tend to get that way in the company of really pretty women, so maybe it is a compliment of another sort].
I skimmed the thread but didn't find the OP giving a clear explanation of what behaviors he actually finds objectionable. [Maybe it is there, so my apologies it I missed it.]
I've lived in several parts of the US and travel for work all over the world including the US and, because of my work, am an observer of cultural differences. Let me give you my sense of what you might be seeing and why.
When I first moved to Boston as a student, there were remnants a clearer class structure than existed in most other parts of the US. The Brahmins, descendants of wealthy families, were important as donors and lived in places like Beacon Hill and Brattle Street and sent their kids to places like Shady Hill and BB&N and Philips Andover or Exeter. I bought a house in Cambridge and was told that the neighborhood had been "Lace Curtain Irish." These were the Irish families who worked in the houses of the WASPs on Brattle Street but had enough money, I guess, for lace curtains and were, I guess, upwardly mobile. Waiters and waitresses and people in the hardware store were rude -- being in the position of serving marked them as in a serving (and thus lower) class. Over the years, Jews and then East and South Asians have flooded the elite institutions (Harvard, MIT, Amherst, Williams) that were once largely reserved for WASPs (a lot of this happened well before my time, but I'm giving you historical sweep). With the various economic booms, new money made by non-WASPs has diminished the Brahmins to near irrelevance. They are neither prominent nor important to society. The Institute for Contemporary Art was started and funded by Jews who were shut out of the MFA, which was a WASP preserve. But the new money has changed that. Now if you look at donors to the MFA's new additions, lots of them are Jewish; I suspect the next big wave will be Indians and Chinese. Waiters and waitress don't really feel the same class distinctions that were here when I first moved here. But, there are still remnants of a class structure that didn't exist in the same way in say, San Francisco. We had a bright, hard-working young woman from a small Carribbean Island who worked as a nanny for us when we lived in New York. When we decided to move to Cambridge, we asked her to move with us and she declined for family reasons, but also because she felt that Boston was a racist place. She came with us for the first month or so and declared that Cambridge was not, in her opinion, racist but very accepting.
What you do see is elite institutions that breed elitist people. At one level, many people who went to Yale as undergrads, did a stint at Oxford, and then finished graduate work at Harvard do think they are intellectually superior to mere mortals (whether or not that is true in their case). And, Harvard, MIT, Tufts, BU, etc. have become central to the Boston economy. The technology industry (such as it is), the biotech industry, the VC industry here, and the finance industry are all heavily driven by MIT and Harvard (especially HBS). Lots of ideas, patents, people come from those places. We don't have lots of normal businesses because the real estate is too expensive to run them here, which again means you get lots of highly educated folk working in Boston relative to other places. As Braunwyn pointed out, scientists are elitist but only more broadly -- they respect other scientific contributors regardless of background based instead upon the quality of their contributions. And, over the years, finance has become a lot more meritocratic. But, meritocracy breeds a belief among the successful in their own capabilities and performance.
Perhaps because of the class structure devolving in large part into a perceived meritocracy, people in the Northeast probably define themselves more by their occupations than people in other parts of the US or Europe. So, highly educated people who have risen in what they see as a meritocracy will tend to think they are particularly important contributors to society. For example, people who get tenure at Harvard tend to think they are really something special (and the world often treats them as such). Maybe, as Michael Lewis suggested in his excellent baccalaureate speech at Princeton this year, those who have succeeded in the meritocratic game overestimate the contribution of skill versus luck to their position in the world.
Finally, these people whether professors or biotechies or techies or VCs are, to some extent, people of the mind and they value others who are thinking. I have found a higher proportion of people who are intellectually alive in Boston than in any other metropolitan area I've spent time in. I've met lots of nice people all over the world, but fewer who are questing intellectually or trying to figure things out in the same way. For me, it makes Boston interesting. But, someone who values people who are intellectually pushing boundaries and open to learning new things may make others whose quest is to make a nice life for their families, for example, feel less valued.
I have happily lived in the Boston area for part of my adult life. I have felt that people were less friendly and open in Boston than in New York (where I also lived). But in both cases, I think the desire to achieve and succeed make people so busy. A friend of mine used to say that when he arrived in Cambridge, he went on to Cambridge Standard Time. He automatically was two weeks behind. That sense of urgency makes people less open to forming new friendships than might be the case in other places.
By the same token, folks in the group I described might find the sense of warmth they experience in Texas or Omaha be be warm and friendly but with no depth if the warmth was not based on anything about them. As such, they might find the generalized friendliness and warmth, especially when it is not always sincere superficial ("Bless her heart. She's dresses like a homeless person.") I introduced a couple who got married. The woman was from Texas and I was something in the wedding. She assigned one of her sorority sisters from her university in Texas to me to make sure I had a good time for the long weekend. This very well put together young woman had 90 times the social skills I have and was pretty, warm, solicitous, and charming all weekend and I definitely had a good time. I'm sure that I was an interesting trophy but I have no idea whether she actually liked me or not. So, it all seemed pretty superficial.
Neither my wife nor I are from New England and she's not from the US. Yet, we have found people in Boston to be quite friendly over time. We've made many good and non-superficial friends. But, it takes time and sometimes may involve being part of one of the high status groups. I'm not sure.
Sorry for the long exegesis. It's not that the OP really cares about the answer to his/her question. But, I hope this is helpful to others.
Good post.
I'll keep my response as short as I can since I enjoyed reading much of what you posted.
I also found Boston to be very "class conscious." So much so that it shocked a Los Angeles native like myself when I went out there. Not that L.A. doesn't have some similarities but it's just not so "in your face" here if you know what I mean. Also people didn't seem to let it affect them as much. Los Angelinos in general seem to be aware of their situation but are more or less content to enjoy life in spite of it.
A large part of the difference is probably due to the fact that Los Angeles is such a large, spread out, and diverse city that it's not really fair to compare it to Boston. It would be better to compare Boston to say San Francisco or Baltimore. I know people from Boston LOVE to think they are New York's biggest rival, but they're not. Boston has a lot of money and a lot of bright people but it's so much smaller than New York that you can't compare the two cities and populations accurately.
Getting back to commenting on the classism and Boston I'd say there were two things that REALLY struck me as peculiar about the cultural attitudes in Boston that were different from Los Angeles.
1.) People from the upper middle class and upper class DO NOT talk or associate in any way, shape, or form with people from lower classes. I NEVER saw Boston professionals interacting with any of the working class while riding on the T coming in and out of, or while walking around Downtown Crossing, except during business transactions. I felt there was almost an unspoken rule, or agreement that existed between both sides that they would tolerate but not interact with each other.
In Los Angeles, although there are exceptions, I feel it's completely different. Wealthy people will think nothing of shooting the **** with a working class person. They may not invite them to parties but there doesn't seem to be the tension that exists between the two classes that exists in Boston, at least from what I saw. By wealthy people I mean upper middle class professionals. I'm not talking about the movie star, and rockstar hollywood types. They are in their own little world but again, some are quite cool and friendly.
Also adding to this, I found a lot of the college students in Boston were openly hostile towards some of the poorer kids. I got the feeling that there was a lot of pent up rage amongst the kids in Boston and poor kids or minorities(hate to say it but I saw it a lot) made easy targets. I have seen some of that amongst college students in Los Angeles but again not on the scale that I saw in Boston. Also Los Angeles is very diverse so I never saw as much racisim. If you're white you can't speak out on your dislike of Latinos or Armenians or whomever because there will be groups of them interacting with you just about everywhere you go.
2.) My second main point is that the lower classes in Boston seem miserable whereas in L.A. people will enjoy their lives anyways. They may not be satisfied with their situation but they're not going to let it stop them from enjoying their lives. Again I saw little of this in Boston. A lot of frowning faces and scowling people of all types were what I encountered when walking around. People weren't really laughing and having a good time at the bars when I would go out either. Just kind of standing around awkwardly, shouting at the sports games, or starting some **** with other people. Again just my experience, but I saw it A LOT over my three years in Boston and it shaped my opinion of that city and the people and I have met a large number of people since moving back that feel the exact same way I do.
I also found Boston to be very "class conscious." So much so that it shocked a Los Angeles native like myself when I went out there.
Yes, excellent insight. This really hit the nail on the head for me. I was never able to describe it in words correctly. A lot of people I met asked me about my background searching for dirt. Then they would make smart-alek comments to try to push me into thinking I was a lower class. As though that made themselves an upper class person somehow.
I really believe that everyone has a great talent to them that can propel them above anyone else and make great contributions to society. No matter what class or race they are. I don't think Bostonians believe that... at all. Maybe they should start an Indian caste system in Boston?
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