These books look at a real cultural phenomenon. Look at our brightest kids: check out the spelling bees, the science fairs, the scholarship winners, and you find a disproportionate (i.e. with respect to their population) number of non-white, non-mainstream "Mom and apple pie" Americans. You find a lot of parents from immigrant cultures in which education is respected more than in our mainstream. (Since whites will soon be the minority, maybe this will be to our cultural advantage.)
The trouble with our national mythology is that we confuse equality of opportunity with equality of achievement. I don't want "just your average [fill in the blank]" to operate on my brain, write my literature, compose my symphonies, represent my country in the Olympics -- or be my President. I want people far better than average in the appropriate skill set.
This is not to say "the best and the brightest" are always right, far from it. But the life of the active mind must be nurtured and respected. Ideologues, whether in a political party, a religion, an AA meeting or elsewhere, begin with conclusions and search out evidence to support them. The culture needs a shot of healthy skepticism and enough humble curiosity to let evidence lead, not follow, the journey to whatever makes the most sense at the time. We need a lot more epistemological uncles in the land.
Perhaps William James put it best: to be tough-minded and tender-hearted. The combination has become all too rare.
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