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If You Were Chelsea Clinton…
What would you do with your life?
I’ll admit to feeling a little sorry for Chelsea. I’ll give you a moment to snicker. But consider! Her parents, Bill and Hillary. Bill Clinton. And Hillary. Those two people are her parents. Surely that merits at least a little pity.
Then, of course, she has the problem of being massively, insanely over-privileged. It’s like the Affirmative Action stigma, but magnified exponentially. Her opportunities are almost limitless, but nobody takes her seriously no matter what she does. And that skepticism is completely justified. We all understand that when you’re Chelsea Clinton, you don’t have to earn what you get.
She doesn’t appear to be particularly self-aware on this point, as evidenced by this, this, this… well, you get the idea. She seems perfectly willing to use her inherited platform to trumpet her personal views on Important Issues, and she shows no sense of perspective on being one of the world’s most privileged human beings. Still, I think it’s amusing to ponder: if you had Chelsea’s unusual combination of burdens and blessings, what would you do with your life? It’s effectively the modern equivalent of asking what you’d do if you were royalty.
I would start by living abroad. I’d go someplace beautiful and buy a house or estate there. Money obviously isn’t an issue, and living abroad would at least diminish somewhat the burden of Being Chelsea Clinton. If she went by her married name, she could probably go whole days sometimes passing for a normal person.
Just raising a family on your Tuscan villa or Provencial estate would probably be a very nice way to spend a life. Eat pheasant, go to the symphony, and take the kids to all the great cities of Europe and the world. Needless to say, there are worse ways to spend a life.
But given a strong urge to Be Good At Something, a highly over-privileged person needs to understand that it is vital not to be (as Chelsea manifestly is) a scattershot. Figure out what you want to do and become very, very good before seeking any kind of wider acknowledgement. Excellence can, after a point, speak for itself. But the bar for earning respect is naturally high when everyone knows you’re a little princess.
If you do allow yourself to be sucked into the limelight, self-deprecating humor can be your best friend. At least make sure people know that you know you’re freakishly advantaged. Most people are prepared to be forgiving towards the undeservingly rich if they at least have a sense of humor about themselves.
Other thoughts? What would you do if you were Chelsea Clinton?
Unless you have a very clear talent in a very competitive area, massive privilege makes becoming very good at something almost impossible. Most people who become good at something work very hard at developing a talent, and except for the very most gifted, drive and hard work ensure success much more than talent. What drives someone who is not obviously naturally gifted and has no consequences of failure to drive her?
If Chelsea really wanted to make something of herself she would give away all of her money, cut ties with her parents and her parents’ connections and try to make it on her own. I agree, though, she’d have to try and do that outside of the US, and probably even then she wouldn’t really be able to escape the shadow of her parents.
Much better to be Rachel Lu with her very ordinary parents.
I think it’s next to impossible to have a reasonable perspective on yourself when you’ve grown up in her poor-little-rich-girl circumstances. The track record for such people isn’t all that good, though children of presidents usually just fade into the background. Since Chel is part of a dynasty and an only child, doesn’t seem likely that she’ll fade away like Amy Carter and the rest of the Carters have, not to mention all the other presidential children. It might be even worse to be Charlotte. She’s likely to be an only or one of two in a longer dynasty. At least she doesn’t carry the name. But I wish them all well. They have big disadvantages, but I’d like to see them have happy lives.
She’ll end up in politics eventually. That’s what America’s royalty does. We can only hope she has a more pleasant demeanor and voice than her mother. If you want to feel sorry for someone consider her husband. We joke a lot about mothers-in-law, but that guy has sHrillary as his.
KP got it in one.
I should have been so lucky. Trust me Prawn, it can be worse than that.
Well, by global standards I’m very privileged, but on more of an ordinary scale rather than a freakish, neurosis-inducing one. I think.
The job of royalty is to lounge around and spend their money. If I had it I would find some sort of well paying sinecure that stroked my ego and then lived the good life. Eating out at fancy restaurants, buying nice things, traveling, partying with my friends, maybe running over a small French children in my carriage, you know the usual stuff.
Frankly I think she is doing a marvelous job of it all.
Hard work is for peasants or the machines that will replace them. The goal in life is to get as much as possible for as little effort as possible.
Maybe she should take up golf…or tennis…something to keep her at the club and out of the public.
Follow the Harrow.
That’s definitely what she will do.
Maybe I’d join a monastery or be a hermit. But Chelsea isn’t that independent or strong.
Now what she should do is start off every day with a nutritious meal at Chipotle.
Then, think small. Find some really important but low-profile thing to do. Like build a school in some really poor small town in Arkansas. Then run the hell out of that school.
Fundraising and public relations for generally innocuous charities broadly supported by the public. With the proper temperament she could become quite the darling of the world, it has certainly worked before.
You know, I don’t think it’s as bad as all that. For one thing, I doubt she is bored when she’s around her father. Maybe her mother, but probably not. I can also report that the manager of a thrift shop where she periodically shopped for furniture before she was married thought she was both personable and reasonable.
She’s still quite young with a very young child. I don’t feel sorry for her, and at this point, I don’t think anybody else should either.
I echo what Roberto said. She will be the face of non-political charities and Important Causes. But will never actually mingle with regular people unless its a photo op. She will live in a permanent bubble of privilege.
Chelsea Clinton is married to an extremely successful investment banker who has important ties to the Democratic party. She has a degree from Stanford and is also extremely close to her parents, particularly her mother.
I’d find a better example to pity.
Vice President of the United States. It’s an office with virtually no formal responsibilities, you get a cool house rent-free, and it is most comfortably occupied by those unaware of the utter pointlessness of their existence.
This will sound funny, but I don’t think there’s much to envy. Sure, she’ll never want for anything, but she’ll also never know what she has earned on her own. What university was going to turn her down? What firm wouldn’t hire her husband? I also think fame is a burden. And frankly, I would not want those parents.
I don’t see how anybody can “feel sorry” for Chelsea Clinton.
She’s one of those rare, lucky few who have the privilege of failing upwards in whatever endeavour she chooses to explore, as long as she doesn’t do anything overtly idiotic and flame out in a blaze of self-sabotage. Just go through the motions and reap the rewards. Nice work if you can get it.
Frankly, I’m surprised that she never hooked up with Justin.
“With your trust funds combined, I am CAPTAIN DYNASTY!”
I don’t envy her at all (your word) but I certainly don’t pity her either.
Oh boo-freaking-hoo!
Look, I don’t begrudge the advantages that trust fund children enjoy. Smoke ’em if you got ’em, sez I. But I’m supposed to feel sorry for her because her life is easy?!?! Yeah, no.
Oh, I envy her. If I was in her position I’d have a whale of a time cultivating an enfant terrible persona.
“Mom, Dad, now that I’m 21 and my trust fund has matured, I’ve decided to intern with The Daily Caller.”
Drops mic. Walks away.
Something tells me you’ve been reading The Long View as of late. :)
Something tells me that anything she does that is overtly idiotic and self-destructive will only harm Ken Starr.
Misthiocracy, spending your life up to your eyeballs in corruption and sleaze and naked self-promotion cannot be nice, even if you do have a lot of stuff. Still have no problem feeling sorry for her.
I don’t think she was around for that part.
I should maybe also add that I was thinking about this because I was skimming back over It Takes a Village for something I was writing. And it occurred to me how much Chelsea, like the little princess she is, has always been a primped little set-piece in her parents’ political schemes. Seriously, that would just suck.
I don’t buy it. It’s not just about having “stuff”. It’s more about having near limitless choices and a near-endless supply of mulligans.
Being raised in the environment means she’s acclimatized to it. I’m sure she looks at people with “normal” childhoods and feels sorry for them.
(Again, I do not begrudge Chelsea Clinton for having these advantages, any more than I’d begrudge any child who received advantages from hard-working ethical parents.. The sins of the parent should not fall on the child’s shoulders, and all that.)
Exactly.
A Freaky-Friday-Style soul-swap would be the only thing that would make being Chelsea even a little bit fun—Rachel or Misthiocracy or ET might have a fabulous time should they happen to wake up in her body (though, if it were me, I’d wait until after the baby is out…). But being Chelsea when you’re actually Chelsea isn’t nearly as good a gig. Boo freakin’ hoo—she and the baby will spend the next year (or maybe—please, God, no—five) watching Granny get mocked and pilloried and Grampie’s sordid past endlessly re-played. (“Mommy, what’s a Bimbo Eruption?”) Eventually little Billy 2 or Hilly 2 will have to grow up and learn about Grampie’s, um, cigar issues…
Room for some sympathy, there. Not little-kid-in-Syria level sympathy, but a smidge. Wouldn’t you rather be Jenna or Barbie…or Amy…or Sasha or Melia?