I've mentioned this several times, but I think the general notion is important, and might explain many things: within the prosperity of the postwar industrial forms, which can function equally for a strong civil society and a weak civil society, things are starting to fall apart a bit. Academic credentials, experience, and skills tend not to count for much. You must be liked. They're not creating an ordered society, they're inviting people to a party. If you're the sort of person who is to be invited and you have the right education, skills and experience, so much the better. Frankly, I've never liked parties, and I've never thought that the point of life was to be found acceptable by other people. Our task is to hold the tent up in the present age, not to relax in the billowing part with the greatest ease. A society, within its time, continues to strain upward using the shared forms of experience, rather than severally enjoy the ultimately meaningless party until it's time to leave.
Another note along these lines: until I spent some time abroad (writes Ovid), I didn't have a sense of my own ethnic identity in the minds of others. When you grow up from childhood in a certain context, you tend to assume that the way you are being treated is the way that people are treated. There is the notion of "the conversation" among disfavored minorities in America, when the adults try to point out the dangers to their otherwise blissfully ignorant children. I never had any real grounding in my ethic heritage, but in retrospect I can see that it was a cause of some contention within my family and among their associates. As I looked back over my experiences, noticed how things worked out, and remembered the things that were said, it dawned on me that, at least in some cases, my perceived ethnic heritage was the dispositive factor at certain crucial moments. The challenge, now that I've had such a conversation with myself, is to preserve the transcendent ground on my side of the fence, and keep those kinds of thoughts on the other side of the fence--where they have been all along.