>but I think a lot of the modern world is fundamentally anti-excellence. The world isn't as black-and-white as you're indicating here. People are skeptical of

>but I think a lot of the modern world is fundamentally anti-excellence. The world isn't as black-and-white as you're indicating here. People are skeptical of the rich guy because for so long the main way to get rich was to rob people. Some rich people still get rich that way today. Many others don't do anything illegal but they're not nice people and aren't what I would call "excellence" by any stretch. As for booing stars, I think that's usually jealousy and ignorance. They don't understand why he/she is making that much, how long the stars career can be compared to, say a banker or investor. Sweden, also, isn't about "anti-excellence" it's about the group over the individual. It may be one's opinion that that's the same thing but we really are all in this together (Note: I don't agree with the Swedish approach, I simply don't dismiss it out of hand). >I think that's garbage, that ambition should be celebrated, that achievement should be celebrated, etc. I agree, except in my opinion the ends don't necessarily justify the means. For example, if you make money but do by creating no value, less value than would have been provided otherwise or actual negative value then I don't think that should be celebrated, it should be opposed and discouraged.