By Steve Sailer
05/17/2015
With Mad Men finally going away, itâs worth noting again how much the engine behind showrunner Matthew Weinerâs fabulous career has been the racial-ethnic anger and resentment he has carefully nurtured throughout what has been, objectively, a very pleasant and privileged life: he grew up in beautiful Hancock Park in Los Angeles, his father is head of The Leslie P. Weiner Neurological Care and Research Center at USC, he attended and briefly taught at Harvard-Westlake in the Hollywood Hills (the most prestigious prep school in Los Angeles), then went on to Wesleyan U., and then into a successful career in the entertainment industry.Hereâs another interview, this time in Paris Review, in which Weiner explains what his Mad Men was all about:
These men donât take no for an answer, they build these big businesses, these empires, but really itâs all based on failure, insecurity, and an identity modeled on some abstract ideal of white power. Iâve always said this is a show about becoming white. Thatâs the definition of success in America â becoming a WASP. A WASP male. The driving question for the series is, Who are we? When we talk about âwe,â who is that? In the pilot, Pete Campbell has this line, âAdding money and education doesnât take the rude edge out of people.â Sophisticated anti-Semitism. I overheard that line when I was a schoolteacher. The person, of course, didnât know they were in the presence of a Jew. I was a ghost.
A newspaper article from when Weiner was a student at Harvard-Westlake in 1981 estimates its student body was 40% Jewish, although in his earlier interview with David Samuels, Weiner insists Jews were much more of a minority at Harvard-Westlake. These implausible memories of his being oppressed for being Jewish in the heart of the second biggest concentration of Jewish wealth and power in the world at the time are incredibly important to Weinerâs sense of himself.
But the Weiners were, presumably, not invited to join the Wilshire Country Club in Hancock Park, and the Los Angeles Country Club on Wilshire Blvd. loomed like an enemy outpost. Sure, they could have joined Hillcrest, Brentwood, or El Caballero while their gentile neighbors could not, but thatâs not the point, the point is that Matthew Weiner is a victim.
Certain male artists like to show that theyâre feminists as a way to get girls. Thatâs always seemed pimpy to me. I sympathize with feminism the same way I identify with gay people and with people of color, because I know what itâs like to look over the side of the fence and then to climb over the fence and to feel like you donât belong, or be reminded at the worst moment that you donât belong.
Take Rachel Menken, the department-store heiress in the first season of Mad Men. Sheâs part of what I call the nose-job generation. Sheâs assimilated. She probably doesnât observe the Sabbath or any of these other things that her parents did. That generation had a hard time because they were trying desperately to be buttoned-down and preppy and â this is my parentâs generation â white as could be. They were embarrassed by their parents. This is the story of America, this assimilation. Because guess what, this guy Don has the same problems. Heâs hiding his identity, too. Thatâs why Rachel Menken understands Don, because theyâre both trying desperately to be white American males.
Of all of them, Peggy is my favorite. I identify with her struggle. She is so earnest and self-righteous and talented and smart, but dumb about personal things. She thinks sheâs living the life of âwe.â But sheâs not. And every time she turns a corner, someone says, âYouâre not part of âwe.â â âBut you all said âweâ the other day.â âYes, we meant, âwe white men.ââ
Like Johnny Rotten said, âAnger is an energy.â It doesnât really matter if the reasons for your ethnic animus are obviously absurd, ugly, and self-serving. As long as your culture validates your feelings, you can gain a major career boost from the motivation they provide.
On the other hand, if your ethnic resentments are not validated by your culture, you had better learn to put a lid on your feelings. Watch your step. Check your privilege.