The march of progress can be measured by the abolition of nepotism. The Church abolished his Cardinalis Nepos status in 1692. The country’s bureaucracy introduced public examination in his nineteenth century. Oxbridge College has replaced the ‘Founder’s Kin’ with Examination Fellows. With the rise of big business in the late 19th century and his early 20th century, owner-managers were replaced by professional businessmen.
But there are two high-profile areas where nepotism continues to thrive. It’s entertainment and politics. His December 19th issue of New York Magazine popularized the term “Nepo his babes” to describe Hollywood’s star children who are themselves stars. “She has her mother’s eyes – and an agent,” reads the cover caption next to a photograph of eight prominent Nepo babies cropped to infant bodies in bassinets.
Hollywood has always had a nepotism problem. The film business was founded by nepotists like Carl Laemmle, co-founder of Universal Pictures, who was known as “Uncle Carl” because he brought in so many families. rice field. And major clans like Fairbanks, Houston, Douglas, Barrymore, and Redgraves dominated the lead roles for generations. Nine Nepo babies were featured in the Hollywood movie ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ to celebrate. O’Shea Jackson, Jr. played his father’s ice cube in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton. Agents, lawyers and other growing service industries are also dominated by prestigious families.
The situation in England is not good. It’s impossible to get your tabloids without reading about the antics of A-listers like Beckham and Jagger, Iris and Rough Law, Amber Le Bon, Lily Collins and more. Singer Lily Allen is the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Kate Winslet just starred in the Channel 4 drama I Am Ruth alongside her daughter Mia Threpleton. Liz Hurley will star in a thriller directed by her 20-year-old son Damien.
The only prominent industry that rivals entertainment is politics. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the son of a former prime minister, and far-right politics in France is a Le Pen family business. American politics has long been dominated by a group of community-based dynasties. Roosevelt and Cuomo of New York, Taft of Ohio, Kennedy of Massachusetts, Stevenson of Illinois, Brown of California, DuPont of Delaware, La Follette of Wisconsin, and Bush of Connecticut. and Texas.
There is some evidence of a strengthening of dynastic principles. George W. Bush was the son of the first president to reach the White House since 1824. The brand name gives his family a head start: Clinton and Trump. Dual-income couples like the Clintons and Cheneys boost each other’s careers and produce political children. People in Congress run politics as a family business by giving jobs to their friends’ children instead of the friends giving jobs to their own children.
According to a recent tally, there are 52 Nepo babies in the UK House of Commons, or about 8% of all MPs. The Speaker of the House and a traditionally apolitical figure, Lindsay Hoyle is the son of Labor MP Doug Hoyle and attended his first Labor Party conference as a baby.
Nepotism was primarily associated with the Conservative Party. The phrase “Bob is your uncle” comes from the fact that Lord Salisbury — Robert Gascoigne Cecil — helped make his nephew, Arthur Balfour, his successor as prime minister. That tradition continues. The Labor Party today is arguably an even more ardent practitioner of nepotism. Hilary Benn and Neal Kinnock are the children of two worker giants. Jon Cryer, Speaker of the Parliamentary Labor Party, descended from a married parliamentary duo, is married to fellow Labor MP Ellie Reeves, and is the brother-in-law of Rachel, the shadow Prime Minister of the Treasury. Reeves.
Why is this important? The obvious answer is that social justice matters in all areas. Occupations dominated by insiders, especially family dynasties, deserve scrutiny. Several Nepobabys hit back at New York magazine, claiming that actors must pass endless performance tests. The same can be said for
Still, stepping in the door ranks high on the list of privileges. as Thomas Gray might admire)? And there are many notable figures who owe their prominence more to their family ties than to their natural talent. Huh? And could George W. Bush have been president if he hadn’t belonged to such a prominent dynasty?
The more obvious answer is that social justice is more important in entertainment and politics than in other areas…especially the latter. It is not good for democracy for people belonging to narrow privileged castes to monopolize representation. Democracy dies if it is not deeply rooted in the soil of society.
When it comes to entertainment, its primary lights play a quasi-public role because they tell stories that help us understand our lives. They are also taking an increasingly important role in public life by speaking out on big public issues, usually from left-leaning liberal positions. Boris Johnson has established a reputation as a TV performer and journalist, not in the House, and Barack Obama is now producing a show for Netflix. It occupies a strange underworld between the Dynasty and the New Dynasty.
Most experts say the struggle for family privilege is intensifying due to concerns over social mobility stagnation and economic stagnation. An increasing number of companies are introducing “resume blind hiring” (excluding the candidate’s name, school, university, etc.). Family-run businesses force meritocratic tests to be passed when family members take on real roles. (His Exor NV boss in Italy, John Elkann, is currently wrestling with a bitter lawsuit to curtail the family’s role in running Agnelli-affiliated companies.) Reunion children.
The world of politics and entertainment is far behind. For example, there is talk of using blind resumes to improve recruitment into British politics. But American politics and global entertainment moods are resisting change. Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Hollywood royals Tony Curtis and Janet Lee, said, “The current conversation about Nepo’s baby is designed to belittle, denigrate and hurt.” Dedicated to our craft, proud of our pedigree, our strong belief in our right to exist.” hard. There are also many people in U.S. politics who think they were born at third base and hit a triple.
The most powerful weapon in the arsenal of populism is that the world applies one set of rules to itself (take care of your family first!) and another to the rest of the world. A charge of being controlled by a selfish elite. Celebrities and politicians play a huge role in creating this impression. One of the reasons is that they are on the public stage and, in fact, are guilty of so many crimes that they are accused of. They can also play a very big role in quelling populist anger if they take a more responsible role in improving professional recruitment and promotion.
Bloomberg Opinion Details:
The Decline and Fall of the Tory Empire: Adrian Wooldridge
How to Run a Family Office Like Agnelli: Rachel Sanderson
How Ambani divides his empire to avoid his father’s stupidity: Andy Mukherjee
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Adrian Wooldridge is the Global Business Columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former writer for The Economist, he is most recently the author of The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World.
More articles like this can be found at bloomberg.com/opinion.
