I happened to be reading some of Tom Wolfe’s old essays this morning. In “The Luther of Columbus Circle” Wolfe comments on how British-feudal-aristocratic notions are still current among American East Coast plutocrats, but with necessary modifications.

In the old aristocratic scheme the eldest son took over the property and assumed the dynastic power. For a younger son three acceptable careers were open: warrior, diplomat, or clergyman above the rank of vicar. Many American millionaires’ sons have become diplomats.… As for the role of warrior, the American armed forces are so highly bureaucratized and so lacking in style — the shabbiest South American colonel has a better-looking uniform than an American general — that the military is out. This category has hazed over into the general area of government service.

This essay, by the way, is in Wolfe’s 1965 book The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. The very first paragraph of the book is a Wolfeian classic:

Hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, HERNia; hernia, HERNia; hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, eight is the point, the point is eight, hernia, hernia, HERNia; hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, all right, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hard eight, hernia, hernia, hernia, HERNia, hernia,, hernia, hernia, HERNia, hernia, hernia, hernia, HERNia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia

As the opening paragraph of a book, I don’t see how that can be improved on.