Prejudices, fourth seriesMencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
History
Prejudices, fourth series
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
American essays -- 20th century; American literature -- History and criticism; Literature -- History and criticism
But what of it? On the one hand this gay professor assumes far too
readily that Harvard graduates, taking one with another, deserve
to be ranked as first-rate men, and on the other hand he greatly
overestimates the number of first-rate men needed to run the world,
and to insure a reasonable rate of human progress. The fact is that
the safeguarding and development of civilization are and always have
been in the exclusive care of a very small minority of human beings
of each generation, and that the rest of the human race consists
wholly of deadheads. Consider, for example, the telephone, a very
characteristic agent of Christian advancement. It has been invented,
perfected, organized and brought to every door in our own time by less
than 20 men--nay, by less than 10 men. All the others who have made
it, financed and installed it have been simply trailers. All the rest
of the human race has taken a free ride. The number of such first-rate
men in the world is always overestimated, and it is fatuously assumed
that they are identical with the wealthier minority of the population.
Prof. Dr. McDougall himself falls into this last error. He proves--what
everyone knew already--that the children of well-to-do parents are
brighter, by pedagogical standards, than the children of poor folk, but
this fact is of no significance. If it were, then pedagogues themselves
would rank as first-rate men, which is an absurdity; they are, in
fact, generally stupid, and seldom produce anything of value to the
world. The test of a first-rate man is not to be made by the criteria
of schoolmarms. It is to be made by asking the simple question: Has
he ever said or done anything that was not said or done before, and
is it something of positive and permanent value to the human race? If
the answer is yes, then he belongs to the superior minority; if it
is no, then he belongs to the mob, no matter how brilliantly he may
pass examinations, and no matter how greatly he may prosper under the
civilization that his superiors have fostered and developed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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