HMN 2025: Did the Ivy League bring down America? Can Joy League save it?

David Brooks’ recent essay “The Atlantic” (How the Ivy League brought down America) provides an important critique of the country’s mechanisms of elite production. It also explores policy and moral prescriptions related to collaborative learning and projects, as well as the amplification of social and emotional skills. As someone myself who graduated from the Ivy League and Stanford but ended up becoming a psychiatrist, writer, and humanist rather than a tech, finance, or business mogul, I appreciate his analysis. I have done my best to live and learn along social, emotional, and collaborative lines, and I believe many of my colleagues and fellow graduates have done the same. Call me a “glue guy,” in Brooks’ terms, rather than a catcher.

(I am grateful to him. The same goes for praise for sleepovers.. Get Amy Chua and Vivek Ramaswamy! Let’s face reality. America is basically a big scary one-night stand with bigotry, aggression, cruelty, addiction and guns, although we might all hope to get along peacefully. We took over when we were having a sleepover. sigh.)

Could our Ivy League Glue Guys and Gals have done more gluing? confident. Could America have done more to ensure that those who rise professionally and financially can continue to connect, collaborate, and help those who cannot or do not? entirely. Giving value and incentives to adhesives will lead to more adhesives.

Brooks’ article speaks of a ‘broken America’ where political and cultural divisions created the conditions for a controversial presidential choice. He therefore assumes that the election of Donald Trump is a symptom of our disease. Our disease, Brooks suggests, is that elitism and Ivy League admissions place excessive value on wealth and, especially, a narrow range of intellectual achievement, resulting in a disastrous disconnect among the electorate as a whole.

In a democracy, the main barometer we have of our collective spirit is elections, by which we are narrowly divided. Maybe we’re a little broken, or maybe we’re a little crazy.

President Trump won by less than 50% of the popular vote nationally, with Kamala Harris winning by about 2.2 million votes out of 152 million, or 3 million fewer total votes than in 2020 despite a larger population. I did it. He won every swing state by about 230,000 votes out of about 26 million, or about 0.9%. Trump won narrowly, but the result will be monumental because the differences in policies, values, personalities, temperaments and styles are significant.

I appreciate Brooks’ analysis, but I think there’s more to the story. I offer these conclusions from my perspective as a cultural observer and public psychiatrist.

1. I think the biggest problem with America is that it has always favored wealthy white men. The loss of their status (through initiatives toward diversity, inclusion, justice and equity) has led to misunderstanding and resentment toward minorities. We know that President Trump’s campaign received generous support from Elon Musk, perhaps the richest man in the world. Racism, xenophobia, misogyny, transphobia, antisemitismand islamophobia Advertisements, speeches and rallies have doubled and tripled this trend since his first term in the 2024 election. I presume that his voters’ support of these attacks or their farewells have made the collective American psyche at least passively complicit in abuse and hyper-masculine views of “strength.”
2. Social media has also fueled a culture of fanning the flames of division in order to gain attention and popularity. In many ways, social media has served as a reminder of responsibility and repair, but it has also tilted toward scapegoating, hostility, and cyber regulatory dysfunction. In the 1990s, Deborah Tannen’s ‘culture of argument’ morphed into a culture of aggression. like i wrote Letter to the International Edition of the New York Times In 2015

“The problem is not that Twitter’s windows are broken. Social media is a broken window. We are withdrawing from face-to-face conversations and relationships because we crave facsimiles of constant contact online. But without any physical signs of their presence, some people turn into uninhibited trolls. Our compassion has always been deepened by our involvement in the real world. Social media is a siren that distracts us from that engagement. “I think it would be good to call it anti-social media,” he said.

1. Americans have been subjected to undue influence campaigns that provide misinformation, amplify false ideas, and create false emotional narratives. So the collective mind may have pulled the wool over the eyes. (see this report From the Brookings Institution.)
2. Americans are simply dissatisfied with the ruling party, as they did in 2016 and 2020, and have thrown them into electoral pain. Many analysts point to economic dissatisfaction with commodity prices and real wages.

I do not believe that the United States has dealt rationally or compassionately with either (1) relational or (4) economic grievances and disconnections. Instead, dissatisfaction was mobilized over President Trump’s election. An election victory provides very short-term relief. Complaints will return. Dissatisfaction with President Trump and his party will likely return Democrats to power in the next general elections, likely in 2022 and 2024.

But we have local and national questions. How should we respond to individual and group complaints, concerns, and changes? How do we begin to understand and prioritize the many challenges before us?

The beauty of our lives as sentient beings is that we can transform historical transmissions of pain and suffering into joy and happiness. Happiness is the resolution of dissatisfaction and pain. I define happiness as greater ability and confidence in dealing with pain. This requires internal and external resources and builds a foundation of joy. Others have reminded me that “radical joy” allows us to return to the joyful roots (“radical” means roots) of our very humanity. We can choose to stay rooted in our humanity and reality and cultivate the joy of presence and connection.

I suggest that we need wise role models (political, civic, communal, familial) to inspire and assist us in managing our suffering well and working to manage our collective suffering. And we must develop the wisdom to elevate those leaders and leadership qualities in our personal and national evaluations.

We all need to do a better job of handling hardship. This can only come from a true alliance with vulnerable people and with our own vulnerability, rather than away from difficulties. A Chinese proverb says, “A wise person is not happy until everyone in the world is happy.”

The antidote to our polarization, bitterness, and discontent is proximity, compassion, and joy. Kamala Harris’ euphoric campaign wasn’t enough to overcome discontent, but it energized millions of voters – 75 million.

I think the yield will pay off in time. And ultimately, where would we be as individuals, neighbors, communities, nations, and the world without joy, especially the joy of human relationships, perseverance, and prosperity?

If the Ivy League destroyed America, the Joy League may save it!

© 2025 Ravi Chandra, MD, DFAPA