Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

"Successful" was a popular sobriquet for Baby Boomers growing in striving or arriviste 50’s milieus. “Successful?” was the next thing you heard after someone’s profession was identified. It was like the tag put on meat which could be “prime” or “choice,” a euphemism for lesser. The obsession and admiration for success is both one of the darkest and most understandable parts of the human psyche. It’s a term right out of Darwin and refers to natural selection—a process that’s part of evolution and is characterized by its value free status. After all what constitutes success other than the ability to prevail and find oneself at the top of the food chain? Hamlet was, by this standard, not a success defending his almost heroic indecision by famously saying, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” Actually in our success driven society Hamlet’s famous speech might be rephrased as, “Thus conscience does make killers of us all” at least as far as A personalities are concerned. Have you ever thought that there might be some sort of inner sanctum or club where all the successful people of the world reside? The only requirement for membership would be that you would have to be at the top of your field. It would probably be located in London on embassy row near Grosvenor Square and all the leading figures in politics, business and the arts would be able to engage in shop talk after a hard day of climbing to the top of the heap. Here murderers and psychopaths who had become the leaders of the both the free and not so free worlds would be able to sit back with a glass of sherry and discuss game theory in front of roaring fires,  enjoying groaning boards of meat with their counterparts.