Gifted Slacker

Contrast, that is.

The previous article I posted about talked mostly about the evolving ethos at Princeton. One person they mentioned was Hobey Baker, a football legend and aviator. He was the epitome of conformance.

After graduation Baker went to work on Wall Street, but found it boring, so he went to war, where he was killed in an accident after the Armistice. I like to think that perhaps something that pushed him to excel bridled at his conformity and caused him to break out of it.

Dwight Eisenhower graduated from West Point the same year as Baker graduated from Princeton.

Eisenhower wasn’t exactly a conformist. He pursued a military career despite the disapproval of his family, and when he entered the academy he was one of the oldest in his class. He was also a friend and sometimes protector of the flamboyant George Patton (who graduated from West Point 6 years before Ike and Baker).

Patton revolutionized the tank corp. and pissed off a lot of people by doggedly doing things the way he thought (knew) best. He also believed that he was the reincarnation of one (or more) of history’s greatest generals.

Patton and Eisenhower were both conformist enough to advance in the Army (Patton less so than Eisenhower). However, both of them were individual enough to come up with war-winning strategies, and ended up ruffling quite a lot of their allies’ feathers.

On the other hand, Baker was a severe conformist his entire life, until he enlisted. His sudden divergence from his previously held-dear norms may have even contributed to his death.

I guess some (most) of us have to accept that we will never fit into a certain demographic. People who aren’t born to be Ivy-drones can have just as much positive effect on the world as those who are. They are just different paths; neither is better or easier than the other.