Talent vs. Feminization, 6/7

Resisting the Culture of Nurse Ratched

There’s the review I did write and the review I didn’t write of Talent, by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross.

From the review of Talent that I did write,

Success in the stock market comes not from finding the best company, but the most undervalued company. Similarly, CG write,

• … seeing the whole package requires a much deeper synthetic ability, a good deal of luck, and what we are calling entrepreneurial alertness—that is, the ability to spot and perceive talents that others do not see.

The review that I didn’t write would have stressed the similarities I see between Talent and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s work of fiction published 60 years ago. Both champion the unusual individual who is up against a stifling, feminized culture.

Kesey depicts authoritarian culture in a mental institution. Under Nurse Ratched, safety and conformity are valued above all else. Kesey doesn’t come out and say that what is wrong with the culture is that it is feminized, but that is a fair Straussian reading.

Rebelling against this culture is Randle McMurphy, who enters treatment in the institution under the misguided assumption that he would enjoy more freedom there than in prison. He desires autonomy and novelty.

If Nurse Ratched were a corporate manager and Randle McMurphy were a job applicant, she would never hire him. The feminized culture has no use for men who might cause trouble. McMurphy is way too unpredictable and careless about following norms. But Cowen and Gross would say not to overlook him as a source of talent. He might have plenty of upside, given his charisma, emotional stamina, resourcefulness, and high energy level.

For a less idiosyncratic and much longer take on Cowen and Gross, you could read The Zvi.