The Extreme Post-WWII Optimism: Smirk, We Could Become a Larry Summers, Leon Black, Kathy Ruemmler and Much More

 Blessed. Those of us born after WW II. That's how it was.

The GI bill was the beginning of universal access to college. The post-war economic boom would be kicking off. Unlike our parents, many immigrants, we wouldn't have been broken in spirit by The Great Depression. Authority figures were socializing us in the graces of the middle class and above. Always use correct grammar. Make friends and influence people. Go to a WASPy church. Yesyesyes, we could become that era's analogue of a Larry Summers, Leon Black, Kathy Ruemmler and more. 

Now, through the Epstein Files we have confirmed that maybe the values we were born into were the right way to live. Was all that scramble to become upper middle class so misguided? Actually, impossible?

Now we also know what it's like. There is the highly educated leader who held big jobs. Larry Summers. He expected sexual favors in return for snippets of mentoring. He uses the crude expression of going "horizontal." So, that's what we should have become?

Billionaire Leon Black, who could afford the elite legal talent of a Paul, Weiss law firm and world-class art, evolved into the cliche of an aging man who cheated on the wife. And get this, the mistress turned on him. 

The female lawyer who was making blockbuster compensation at a major law firm - Kathy Ruemmler - accepted pricey gifts from a convicted pedophile. Didn't our mothers tell us that gifts impose obligations? And why didn't this supposedly well-bred woman have compassion for those less fortunate than she? Isn't that what the privileged are to do? Or so we were told. When emotionally distressed Ruemmler had resources for relief they didn't. They might have dived into a giant bag of nachos while she went to the spa. She mocked the overweight.

There are myriad more examples how lacking in grace and dignity and simple humanity the territory is where we were told to head. Needless to say that promise that we could be all we wanted to be has been exposed over and over again to be downright cruel. The Epstein files detailed what it takes in terms of wealth, contacts and horse-trading to even be allowed to enter the first door. As a coach what I hear most often is the self-hate at not making it big. The assumption is that was not only possible but quite doable. In high school, they impressed how far your high IQ could take you.  

And, soon enough society will move on to the next scandal. Already the Epstein obsession is lessening in intensity. The next? Perhaps geopolitical manipulation, helped by AI, of elections. And more raw lessons will be learned about how the world really operates. 

So, fellow Boomer strivers, let's reach back to before all this extreme success-chasing started. Are the values to embrace the fundamental human ones? Empathy, intuition, respect, self-preservation, nurturing and the ability to love?

Those were instilled in me in the old neighborhood in pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey in the late 1940s and until the mid-1950s. Then television, guidance counselors and other sources of socialization took over. At my sister's wake those from the old neighborhood were reflecting how that time was the happiest of their lives. Since then, there had been so much suffering. Now we know: Much of that had been artificially created by the myths of what was within our reach, that is, without losing our minds, health, ethics and dignity.   

Success is a mental game. Failure comes from being done in by the “committee” in your head.

Together, we liberate your thinking. Then we change your story. And, unleash success. Meanwhile, we focus on bringing in income. That puts you in a position of strength.

Intuitive Coaching. Special expertise with transitions, becoming a solopreneur and aging. Psychic/tarot readings, upon request. Complimentary consultation with Jane Genova (Text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com). Yes, test out the chemistry. Zero risk.

Don’t give up before the miracle.