Yale law professor Amy Chua, author of the acclaimed best-selling book Tiger Mother Battle Hymn about China’s rigid tradition of raising children to be successful, has released a new book, Triple Pack: How Three Unique Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America. The publication was co-authored by her husband Jed w.e.nfeld, also a professor at Yale University.
In The Triple Pack, Amy Chua looks at the reasons why people of various ethnic minorities—Jews, Chinese, Indians, Cubans, Lebanese, Iranians, Nigerians, and Mormons—are doing well in the United States. The author, based on statistics and personal observations, notes that Mormons have recently achieved significant success in business, Nigerians are actively going into science and quite often receive doctoral degrees, Cubans in Miami in just one generation got out of total poverty, families of Chinese and Indian immigrants earn more than Native Americans. According to the scientist, such success is determined by three factors, such a “triple package”:
- Pride in one’s exclusivity, pride in one’s nation or family history,
- restlessness, life in tension due to constant external demands and a sense of one’s precarious position in life,
- self-discipline: perseverance, restraint and self-control.
The Jews go to success and are ahead of everyone, because they consider themselves the chosen nation, but in Garvad Nigerians from the Ibo and Yo.e. tribes do not lag behind them. These are handsome two meters tall who are sure that when creating people, God put everything into them the best. The total population of Nigerians is less than 1%, and at Harvard Business School, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in America, Nigerians from the tribes of Ibo and You.e. — from 20 to 25%.
Self-complacency relaxes, and self-doubt and a constant feeling of insecurity, understanding of one’s precarious life situation makes one tense up and push forward. Asian schoolchildren and students live in this situation: you have no connection, their parents cannot cover them from life’s difficulties, and, moreover, it is their parents who constantly tell them that all their efforts are not enough, they are criticized, they are threatened by the threat of being left on the sidelines of life and make you learn more and more. Yes, it’s tension and neuroticism, but it’s restless tension that makes you move forward.
And the third in this triple package: self-discipline. Unrestrained people who allow themselves impulsive decisions and actions never succeed. According to statistics, the leaders of the largest American corporations are increasingly becoming Mormons. The members of this sect differ from the rest of the population precisely in their self-discipline and restraint. They do not drink and are not distracted by stupid things, lead a healthy lifestyle and at lunch they only drink water, they are very self-possessed and keep their word, they always fulfill agreements.
The one who has a “triple package” will not be lost, but will saw, saw, and saw, and through this he will certainly achieve success. And satiety with success, complacency means the end of real success.
In the 1960s, the Greeks were considered a highly successful ethnic group in the United States (in terms of income). About ten years ago, the Vietnamese were considered the most successful national group in the US, and the Filipinos had one of the largest (after the Indians) shares in the US scientific community. Today, the advantages of the Greeks, Vietnamese and Filipinos have disappeared. Why? Studies of the academic success of immigrants from Asian countries have shown that there is no longer enough “fuse” for the third generation of immigrants — their indicators are gradually compared with those of white Americans.
The trick is that modern American values are a “triple package” in reverse: firstly, everyone is equal, secondly, you must always believe in yourself, and thirdly, you should live for today. This diabolical anti-package, Chua believes, is causing the country to sink into idleness and irresponsibility. Only those who do not succumb to liberal frivolity will not sink; here she recalls the TV series Breaking Bad, in which drug bosses are hardworking and never use their product.