Jonah Goldberg? Why Bother?

The quoted excerpts show that the book is written in the same slobbish prose used for Goldberg's online performances. That much, at least, I find shocking. So much the worse for the thesis of his editor Adam Bellow that family inheritances of cultural capital bring huge advantages.

On Goldberg's background as nepotistic beneficiary, see this item. As for Bellow's argument, nothing new comes to mind beyond these earlier thoughts:

The image of a silver spoon on the cover of In Praise of Nepotism is an awfully cute touch, but to someone born without one, it looks like a weapon.

The premise and the consequences are ultimately not so distinct from the logic of The Bell Curve, the volume that Bellow edited at the pinnacle (or nadir) of his career until now. In short: Equality is an illusion and an impossibility. The very idea is pernicious. It saps the vital force of all that is good and necessary in the world. We need to square our meritocratic values with a realization that some people really do deserve the manor to which they are born. Or plantation, as the case may be.

The rest is here.