Back to the Future

I guess that's where we're headed.  Margaret Wente had a great column in The Globe and Mail the other day.  It was about Victorian values, the ones on which I was raised:  discipline, conscientiousness and diligence. 

Yeah, that's about right.  "The more a society progresses, the bigger a problem self-control turns out to be.  In the new hyper-meritocracy, people with temperate habits and Victorian values will do better than ever -- and people who can't resist temptation will do worse."

Apparently, self-discipline is a far better predictor of university grades than IQ.  Well, I could have told you that.  I remember girls who scored very high on IQ tests -- much higher than I -- but who were basically dummies and didn't do well overall.  My problem was that I did not possess a "math" brain.  Rather my talents were in "language", which did count much back then.  Self discipline is the key.  I remember my mother telling me I didn't really feel the way I told her I was feeling.  "Oh, you don't really feel like that," she would say, when I indulged myself.  She was so right because even if I did feel like that, who cared?

Self discipline, rigor and rectitude will overcome many faults and take one a long way.