Larry Summers: The “Winklevi” are “Jerks”
Posted on December 7th, 2012 in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
A year or so ago at a meeting of the Aspen Institute, Larry Summers gave a talk in which he was asked about the representation of him in the film The Social Network, and he told a story about the Winklevoss twins which went something like this:
I learned a long time ago that if a student is wearing a suit on Tuesday afternoon, they either have a job interview or they are an asshole.
(Long pause…)
When I saw the video of that interview, which was conducted by Walter Isaacson, I was stunned that a former president of Harvard would refer to students as assholes—though I shouldn’t have been: in Harvard Rules, I recounted the story of how, on several occasions while president, Summers referred to student Zayed Yasin as a “little shit.”
But at least that sneering putdown occurred in relative privacy, at small gatherings; Summers called the Winklevosses assholes in a semi-public forum which was also being filmed.
So at this Asia Society talk on December 5th, interviewer Karen Fineman of CNBC asked him that same tired question about The Social Network.
And Summers repeated about three stories that he has told previously, including that one about the Winklevoss twins; the only difference was that this time he referred to them as “jerks” rather than assholes.
(He also calls them the “Winklevi,” which is their pop culture nickname, but again—inappropriate for a former president of the world’s greatest university.)
I really don’t see how an act of respect—getting dressed up to see the president of Harvard—could be interpreted as evidence of being an asshole or a jerk. What a bitter and jaded mind that interpretation suggests.
But even if that’s your take on what is intended to be a compliment, keep it to yourself. Otherwise, you not only come away looking like the jerk, but you dishonor your former office—that office to which the Winklevosses were showing their respect.
The Winklevosses aren’t always the most sympathetic characters, but that’s irrelevant. A president of Harvard should have grace. Larry Summers has none. That’s a big reason why he’s no longer president of Harvard.
I’d like to see Summers tell that story when the Winklevosses are in the room. I expect he wouldn’t. Bullies are too scared to say it to someone’s face…
9 Responses
12/7/2024 8:05 pm
Takes one to know one. That Summers has now scripted this anecdote, and repeats it verbatim except for that change to the PG-13 “jerks,” is truly pathetic. Put a fork in him.
12/7/2024 9:10 pm
I know Summers doesn’t like to take advice, but is there no one at Harvard-perhaps its current president?—who can remind him that, even though he is no longer president, University Professors have some obligation to act like leaders?
12/8/2024 8:36 am
Larry Summers should be commended for the good results his diet is producing. This is someone with discipline.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/larry-summers-romney-tax-plan_n_1958982.html
Reportedly his diet will be now the subject of the book that he has been wanting to write for some time.
12/8/2024 5:26 pm
First, LHS thinks that the highest levels of Harvard abused him, so he might not feel it was his responsibility to protect Harvard’s honor. Second, we have seen this populism before — he ingratiated himself to students by tweaking the noses of their professors, and here he is turning up his own nose at those necktie-wearing Final Club kids. Don’t we all remember how gleeful it made us when our school principal dissed our 3rd grade teacher or the classmate who was acting superior?
But something more is going on here — it’s one thing to let out that “assholes” with a grin and as an expletive, but now we are seeing a rehearsed and formulaic version of the same story. The attempt to attach these epithets to the Winklevoss twins in the public media is now deliberate. But LHS has nothing to do with the Winklevosses at this point; why is he putting them down? In fact, any professor knows that kids who do act like jerks in college generally grow up, and the less said about that the better years later, because they may have become entirely different people. (Some of us, in fact, are restrained in our public comments on students because we remember what jerks WE OURSELVES sometimes were in college.)
Maybe he thinks he’s doing a favor to Facebook or to someone there.
12/8/2024 8:14 pm
And don’t we expect that he will be leaving Harvard for greener pastures when Bernanke steps down?
12/10/2024 10:07 am
Reading this thread brought to mind an entertaining recent read, Aaron James’ Assholes: A Theory. First, the discussion of Summers as the epitome of the “smug asshole” is hilarious. (Actually, all of James’ asshole typology is great.) Second, it’s refreshing to think about people like Summers and the out-of-proportion role they play in our moral lives from a philosophical perspective. Third, James’ discussion of asshole management reminded me of how FAS pulled together against Summers, and rang true.
12/10/2024 10:40 am
I’ve just ordered it! Thank you, Anon2. The amazon description is compelling:
Asshole management begins with asshole understanding. Much as Machiavelli illuminated political strategy for princes, this book finally gives us the concepts to think or say why assholes disturb us so, and explains why such people seem part of the human social condition, especially in an age of raging narcissism and unbridled capitalism. These concepts are also practically useful, as understanding the asshole we are stuck with helps us think constructively about how to handle problems he (and they are mostly all men) presents. We get a better sense of when the asshole is best resisted, and when he is best ignored—a better sense of what is, and what is not, worth fighting for.
12/10/2024 2:25 pm
The pot calling the kettle black again.
I can’t fathom the level of discourse which professors these days apparently think suitable for public discourse in mixed company. The example Larry has set is beyond the pale.
Decades ago, I was the first woman to join a department full of gold ol’ boys in a rather rawhide flyover state. My senior colleagues had grown up on farms driving around in pickup trucks with gunracks. After I arrived, one of them privately complained (out of my earshot) to a junior (male) colleague that they could no longer jokingly call someone a “dumb pigf***er” at department meetings due to my presence. My colleague reported this to me privately, and I laughed and chalked it up to their earthy farmboy upbringings.
I left that place for what I thought would be more civilized places in the northeast. I did not expect to hear that sort of barnyard language again.
I never dreamed that 30 years later, a professor and former president of Harvard, with a very different pedigree and upbringing, having grown up in a family filled with parents and uncles who were professors rather than farmers, would use that kind of language in a public forum-in a way that would be recorded for posterity.
The example Larry set makes it hard to fault a professor at another institution of higher education for writing about his young daughter:
“Look, I hope she’s a good student and I hope she’s able to get into… well, not Harvard, Harvard’s full of assholes, but Williams, or Swarthmore, or Stanford. I’d even grudgingly accept amherst. I guess.”
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2012/11/29/on-the-checking-of-boxes-and-the-need-to-chill-out/
12/11/2023 6:07 am
And this is the same clown who shamed Harvard by cozying up to Buddy Fletcher, just read his speech on 4 October 2003…that’s another legacy of Summers fast unraveling. No class, Larry.