I often think we would be a better country if, during the post-war era 70-ish years ago when the WASP elites lost and/or abdicated their remaining monopolies on America's institutions of wealth and power, the non-Yankee whites, Jews, Italians and other strivers who took their places had acquired their values along with their corner offices, stock exchange seats and places at Harvard.
The notion of wealth as something requiring stewardship, taste and discretion, as something to be managed and grown not just for one's own benefit but for the benefit of those who haven't even been born yet is gone. The idea that the privileges of power and wealth entail with them responsibility and reciprocity to society is dead. Instead, wealth is now simply money - spent and leveraged indiscriminately to satisfy ego and conspicuous consumption, like small fish thrown into a shark tank only to be torn to shreds and gobbled up.
The people who buy the old houses on Long Island don't want to maintain them and the things they stand for and the history they hold. They only want to tear them down and build a garish edifice to themselves. And an ersatz interpretation of WASP aesthetic can be found in your local department store - Ralph Lauren shirts with cartoonishly large pony logos, Tommy Hilfiger shorts in day-glow colors - that misses the point entirely. It's status without discretion. It's luxury without taste. It's money without responsibility.
What on earth are you talking about? People have always been garish and flashy in fashions and with money. There is nothing new under the sun. Do you think the bustle was a tasteful fashion?
How about the Biltmore Estate?
