This is obviously true. Nobody deserves to take pride in anything, whatever you consider "merit"; Mark Twain wrote an essay called "What is Man" arguing this. E

This is obviously true. Nobody deserves to take pride in anything, whatever you consider "merit"; Mark Twain wrote an essay called "What is Man" arguing this. Everybody is a product of their environment. On the other hand, remember what Roman Hruska said about needing some representation of mediocre people on the Supreme Court? "We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos." ...and people still make fun of it.