Plucked from one of Delbanco’s essays.
In 1912, Owen Johnson’s enduringly popular novel (most recently reprinted in 2003) Stover at Yale gave a picture of Ivy life as a gladiatorial contest among alpha males who, by beating out their rivals for a spot on the team or in the club, learned to achieve “victory…on the broken hopes of a comrade,” and went on to rule the nation.
You’re coming to the talk, right?
The Edge of the American West 
3 comments
October 22, 2009 at 1:43 pm
ben
I’m afraid I can’t make it. Maybe if you had consulted with me regarding its scheduling…
October 23, 2009 at 3:10 am
foeb
“That was the pattern of school life — a continuous triumph of the strong over the weak. Virtue consisted in winning: it consisted in being bigger, stronger, handsomer, richer, more popular, more elegant, more unscrupulous than other people — in dominating them, bullying them, making them suffer pain, making them look foolish, getting the better of them in every way. Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were the strong, who deserved to win and always did win, and there were the weak, who deserved to lose and always did lose, everlastingly.”
This is either a quote from George Orwell, or from my great aunt Sapphy. One or the other.
October 23, 2009 at 4:15 am
dave
Sounds like Homer to me… If it works for 4000 years, why fix it?