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Amy Chua, Tiger Mother is back. And this time? No one is safe.

 

Amy Chua aka. Tiger Mom

 

Remember ‘Tiger Mom?’ Amy Chua?

If you aren’t familiar with her first book ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ and her proclamation that Chinese mothers are superior and therefore, breed superior children, you can read about it here.

Obviously, Chua made waves with her first and bestselling book, so it’s not surprising she’s back with a brand new set of rules, and this time she straying into even more controversial territory. One where no one is safe.

According to Chua and her husband, Jed Reubenfeld, who co-authored the new book ‘The Triple Package” there are three reasons why 8 particular groups reign supreme over everyone else in America. The three reasons being: Superiority Complexes, Insecurity and Impulse control.

Should you not belong to any of the following groups, you are, according to the authors, simply contributing to the downfall of America. Not surprisingly, Chua and Reubenfeld belong to two of the groups they deem to be exceptional. In no particular order, the groups are:

  • Jewish
  • Indian
  • Chinese
  • Iranian
  • Lebanese-Americans
  • Nigerians
  • Cuban exiles
  • Mormons

What though, does the ‘Triple Package’ entail. What are, according to the authors, the distinguishing factors that make these eight groups the most superior in America: (From New York Post)

1. A superiority complex

 

“Any group that collectively believes they are inherently better than any other, say the authors, has an advantage. They do note that this is perhaps humanity’s oldest and ugliest flaw, the bottom-line cause of wars and genocide. In their estimation, it’s not nearly common enough in America, where “the Superiority Complex . . . is antithetical to mainstream liberal thinking . . . the stuff of racism, colonialism, imperialism, Nazism.”

This way of thinking, they write, has been a big boon to Mormons and Jews, though they also fail to note that believing in the superiority of a belief system is the driving force behind almost all organized religion. (Except the Amish. The authors freely note that the Amish are losers for this very reason.)

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2. Insecurity

 

“That insecurity should be a critical lever of success is another anathema, flouting the entire orthodoxy of contemporary popular and therapeutic psychology,” they write. In fact, insecurity has long been known as a prime motivator among actors, artists, CEOs, despots. “Imposter syndrome,” the term used to describe highly successful individuals who believe, deep down, they are frauds, was identified back in 1978.

“Note that there’s a deep tension between insecurity and a superiority complex,” the authors continue. “It’s odd to think of people being simultaneously insecure but also convinced of their divine election or superiority.”

3. Impulse Control

 

Yet another hallmark of self-help, impulse control is considered to be a key factor in personal success — the ability to delay instant gratification in the service of a greater goal. “As we’ll use the term,” they write, “impulse control refers to the ability to resist temptation, especially the temptation to give up in the face of hardship or quit instead of persevering at a difficult task.”

Apparently all Americans not among the key eight groups are particularly bad at this “because all three elements of the Triple Package run so counter to modern American culture, it makes sense that America’s successful groups are all outsiders in one way or another,” they write. “Paradoxically, in modern America, a group has an edge if it doesn’t buy into — or hasn’t yet bought into — mainstream, post-1960s, liberal American principles.”

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Amy Chua’s new book ‘The Triple Package’

Obviously the glaringly obvious omission from the “eight” are the African-Americans. Chua and Reubenfeld believe that the Civil Rights Movement took away any hope for a superiority narrative.

“In this paradoxical sense, equality isn’t fair to African-Americans,” they write. “Superiority is the one narrative that America has relentlessly denied or ground out of its black population.”

“Nigerian immigrants, they argue, are bolstered by the belief that they are better than other West Africans — much as the Lebanese believe, as descendants of Phoenicians, that they are superior, or that the Chinese believe that their 5,000-year-old civilization makes them superior.”

The authors conclude that America once was a Triple Package nation, but no more. That they have been left wanting due to their ‘”superiority complex, poor Western-style “self-esteem parenting” and lack of impulse control.”

The question they finally ask all Americans is this — Should America be a Triple Package country again? Can it be?

“The real promise of a Triple Package America,” they conclude, “is the promise of a day when there are no longer any successful groups in the United States — only successful individuals.”

Obviously, this book is already gaining its fair share of critics with one reviewer Maureen Callahan from Gawker making the following observation:

“Chua stumbled into a reputation as an agitator and here she has widened her scope as much as possible. Now, not only are parents supposed to get mad at the insinuation that they aren’t ruthless enough assholes — and buy a book teaching them how to be — but everybody is.”

What do you think of ‘Tiger Mom’s’ parenting techniques?