My passion will not be interrupted by collective misery

Why do Americans travel?

In a recent survey taken by American Express Travel, 87% of respondents indicate taking trips for the pursuit of personal passions will continue or even increase over the next two years despite economic conditions.

One's 'personal passion' should not be hampered by an economic recession. To be concerned with or have the ability to indulge one's 'personal passion' in the form of elective travel while a nation's economy points toward collapse is a mark of wealth.

With wealth, the individual has the power to choose. The act of choosing, albeit in the form of negative freedom, is a hallmark of elite culture. They project this and believe that everyone has an equal freedom to make choices.

So what do wealthy Americans primarily choose as their motive for travel?

42% choose destinations for culinary reasons

Food. Exotic food.

Most people expressed they are also willing to spend more money and stay longer for vacations that further their personal dreams.

Again there is talk of dreams. Personal dreams. Dreaming that is not futile as has the potential to be realized is more probable with money and therefore is the property of our wealthiest citizens.

For the rest of us, we are left with the real.

From: http://www.luxist.com/2008/08/14/personal-passions-fuel-getaway-plans/

Don't get too close to my fantasy

A synopsis of the forthcoming television show, Privileged.

Twenty-three year-old Megan Smith has a Yale education, a relentlessly positive attitude and a plan to conquer the world of journalism, despite the fact that she is currently slaving away at a tabloid rag.

Megan's plan is thrown off course when, in one whirlwind day, she gets fired, meets cosmetics mogul Laurel Limoges and becomes the live-in tutor for Laurel's twin teen granddaughters in the heady Palm Beach world of wealth and power.

Acquiring access to wealth in America has to be predicated on a fantasy. In this case, it is a "whirlwind day" - think tornado in the Wizard of Oz. An incredible event that takes the protagonist out of her mundane world (the domain of workers) and inserts her into a world of adventure (the domain of rulers). Even so, she remains a servant.

The girls, Rose and Sage, are beautiful, rebellious and less-than-thrilled with their new tutor, but Megan is determined to win them over as she enjoys the perks of her new job - breathtaking private suite, gorgeous convertible and live-in chef Marco.

Rebelling against what, exactly? The confines of their upper class life? The authority of a someone who is beneath their status being in charge of their education? I doubt it's truly a rebellion. More likely, it is a reaction.

And the chef is not white.

Despite her own complicated romantic and family relationships, Megan is committed to making a difference in the lives of her two headstrong charges as she navigates the treacherous waters of high society in Palm Beach.

It is the duty of the lower classes to educate and change the amoral, sociopathic, narcissistic individualism that is inherent in the wealthy, or so the narrative goes. To believe in the possibility of a spontaneous change in the values of the wealthy - or any class - is probably naive.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privileged_(TV_series)

The problems of being a psychotherapist to the rich; or, we can hash out the CBT in the limo

"Dr. Karasu, known as an expert in treating the wealthy and powerful, recognized a common pitfall among his peers: Rich people can be seductive. "The therapist wants to identify with the patients and comes to see it as his role to help them get more wealthy," he said. [...] it can be hard to resist the temptation to sycophantically adopt their point of view.

"It used to be that my patients were the children of the rich: inheritors, people who suffered from the neglect of jet-setting parents or from the fear that no matter what they did, they would never measure up to their father's accomplishments," he recalled. "Now I see so many young people - people in their 30s and 40s - who've made the money themselves."

Dr. Stone said those two kinds of patients tended to have different problems: "In my experience, there was a high incidence of depression in the people who were born rich. And by contrast, the people today who are making a fortune are so often narcissistic in a way that excludes depression."

Dr. Karasu and several of his peers voiced a concern that a rich person today was ever more inclined to view his or her psychotherapist as nothing more than a highly skilled member of his personal army.

He added: "It's King Ludwig Syndrome. In the 19th century, Bernhard von Gudden was the psychiatrist for the Bavarian royal family and began to treat King Ludwig II, who was psychotic. In the end, the two of them drowned in a boat. So I teach my people who are treating wealthy people, 'Don't get in your patients' boats.' "

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/nyregion/07therapists.html?_r=2&ei=5087&em=&en=f3c64fc677840da0&ex=1215576000&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all