They’re admitting that you can’t “Have it all”.
“The Third Metric: Redefining Success Beyond Money & Power†was the conference presented last week by Mika Brzezinski, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,†and Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of the Huffington Post, at Ms. Huffington’s new apartment in TriBeCa (some 200 people squeezed into her living room).
Panels, covering topics ranging from “Managing a Frenetic Life†to “Wellness and the Bottom Line,†featured a number of prominent people, among them the actress Candice Bergen and Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama.
The message, one that Ms. Huffington is promoting in her publication and in speeches, is particularly aimed at women. “The way we define success isn’t working,†Ms. Huffington said at the conference. “More, bigger, better — we can’t do that anymore.â€
The concepts seem a little fuzzy at times, but the overarching thesis is that it is time to rethink the common wisdom of how to achieve success: sleep four hours a night, work 20 hours a day, see your family rarely and never admit the need for downtime.
That system is wearing us down, Ms. Huffington said. In her commencement speech this year at Smith College, she told students, “If we don’t redefine success, the personal price we pay will get higher and higher. And as the data shows, the price is even higher for women than for men. Already women in stressful jobs have a nearly 40 percent increased risk of heart disease and a 60 percent greater risk for diabetes.
Now if they would only stop promoting a system of government that damn near requires a two-full time salary household for it to stay afloat: One to pay for the household and one to pay the taxes.
If Oprah can’t “have it all”, then there is no way in hell that little Suzie from the suburbs stands a chance at it. Maybe the feminists at her public schools will start to pipe down in the not too distant future. Though probably not.
