I get dissed by Obama

Having been raised in a lower middle class family, let me just say: I love the lower middle class. I think that their values, their commitment to family, their general approach to life is something I respect and admire. On the other hand, I certainly would never romanticize the lower middle class or the working class. As someone who has watched his parents struggle financially, have a hard time paying bills, even declare bankruptcy as my parents had to a few years ago - and experience all of the strain on a family that that entails - I've always thought that I would work hard so that I could avoid being in that situation. You know in my experience: when you don't have money, you spend all of your time worrying about money; when you do have money, you can get on with actually living your life.

So, I've never been particularly embarrassed about wanting to be able to live a comfortable life without having to constantly worry about money, and when I got into Harvard, I jumped at an opportunity to dramatically increase my earning potential.

So, I have to say that I find it really offensive when I find the Junior Senator from Illinois saying:

There's no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should live by. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America's.

But I hope you don't. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It's because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you'll play in writing the next great chapter in America's story.

Now, I don't personally feel like I'm "keeping my story separate from America's." Quite the contrary, I think I'm living the American Dream - that, through hard work, anyone in this Land of Opportunity can have a prosperous, comfortable life.

Nor am I so narcissistic that I think that I could achieve "collective salvation" for the nation if I were to forego a good job next year and instead do Teach for America or become a "community organizer" like the Junior Senator. In fact, I think that neither our collective nor my own individual salvation would be advanced by such a course. Just the opposite: I think that the thought that a 25-year-old - even one with a good education - could somehow solve the world's problems isn't just naive - it's usually premised upon self-centeredness and totally unjustified positive opinions about oneself. I for one don't think I could move to an impoverished neighbourhood and have anything particularly valuable to teach the people there - these neighbourhoods are, after all, populated by mature adults who have experienced far more of the "real world" than I ever will. I don't subscribe to the Left's paternalism - I think that, generally, people - even poor people - are far better at living their lives without my input than they would be with my input. So, I just want to go about pursuing a good life for myself, and supporting a social system in which other people are also able to pursue a good life for themselves. I'm not so arrogant as to say that I know what path is right for anyone else, nor do I particularly think I have the right to impose my opinions on others. I'm sorry, Senator, but that isn't a "poverty of ambition" on my part. That's actually respecting people in difficult situations and having the humility to admit that I don't have the ability to solve everyone's problems.

Though I guess that's why I'm not the Obamessiah.