Malcolm Gladwell’s books The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and David and Goliath are the works of a contrarian who writes clearly and with engaging enthusiasm.
The contrarian was in evidence when he used Alva Vanderbilt as an example of a rebel during his Distinguished Speaker Series talk last month at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.
Further evidence was his dismissal of deterrence theory to explain rebellions in the Middle East, Ferguson shooting protesters, California criminals and the improbable suffragette Alva Vanderbilt.
The deterrence theory, Gladwell explained, holds that people rebel when the benefits outweigh the risks.
“The problem with the deterrence theory,” he said, “is too often it doesn’t explain behavior.”
In the Middle East and in Ferguson, upping the cost of rebellion hasn’t been an effective deterrent. California’s three-strike law, “the most Draconian penalty in the history of the modern world,” as Gladwell described it, hasn’t deterred criminals.
And in the case of Alva Vanderbilt, the benefits of great wealth did not deter her from becoming a leading suffragette in the early 1900s.
“Alva came of age in the 1870s when the only way for a woman to achieve her ambitions was to marry money… Her gaze fell on the handsome playboy Willie Vanderbilt, grandson of the richest man in the world,” Gladwell noted.
“She then threw her energy into becoming the most conspicuous consumer in the history of conspicuous consumption.”
The 285-foot yacht she commissioned was 100 feet longer than JP Morgan’s. It was once nearly shot out of the water by the Turkish Navy, which mistook it for an enemy destroyer.
Gladwell described the French chateau Vanderbilt built on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and her 800 acre, country cottage on Long Island as “real estate pornography.”
But Alva Vanderbilt’s most ambitious efforts were focused on her daughter Consuelo.
Consuelo was required to speak French at home and recite German poetry on Friday evenings. She wore a metal corset to maintain perfect posture.
Over Consuelo’s passionate objections, her mother married her off to “Sonny” Churchill, a foppish cousin of Winston Churchill.
“It was all the rage for wealthy daughters of the American nouveau riche to marry the penurious sons of English aristocrats. It was ‘cash for class,’” Gladwell said.
“In exchange for marrying Consuelo, Sonny Churchill received $2.5 million up front and $100,000 annually,” Gladwell said.
“So, here’s where things get complicated, because people with lots of servants don’t generally end up as radicals. It would be like Kim Kardashian leaving for the West Bank and joining Hamas.”
“For years, the standard theory psychologists used to explain rebellion was deterrence. If the benefits are greater than the cost, people will break the rules.
“The most famous example involved the Montreal police strike in 1969. The cost of breaking the law was zero, so Montreal went crazy. There were so many bank robberies, the banks closed. People were getting shot in the street and people in Canada don’t have guns,” said Gladwell, who is Canadian.
“The lowest tax fraud rate in the world is in the United States. Deterrence theory would say this is because the cost of cheating is so high that it makes more sense to play by the rules.”
“But just 1.5 percent of returns are audited and if they catch you, you simply pay the tax and a penalty that is so low that the rational thing to do is to cheat,” Gladwell said.
For a more satisfactory explanation for rebellion than the deterrence theory, Gladwell cited Yale psychology professor Tom Tyler, author of Why People Obey the Law.
“Tyler’s theory,” Gladwell said, “is the reason people chose to obey or disobey the law is not cost benefit, but legitimacy.”
Tyler lists three conditions for legitimacy.
- Respect. If you feel your complaint will be heard you will perceive authority as legitimate.
- Fairness. When you perceive the law as being applied equally, you are more inclined to accept authority.
- Trustworthiness. Tax laws in this country aren’t changed without long debate. By contrast, in Greece and Italy [where tax fraud is rampant] the tax laws are perceived as capricious and arbitrary.
Gladwell contended that in Ferguson, sending the police out in riot gear, though it increased the risk to protesters, didn’t deter them because they did not perceive the police authority as legitimate.
“The most astonishing fact about Ferguson is that the crime rate is the same as the national average. Yet in the course of a year, the average household received three arrest warrants and one in five households had a court case. Court fees were the local government’s second leading source of revenue.”
“Which brings us back to Alva,” Gladwell said. “Alva did not view society as legitimate, fair or trustworthy.”
“In the 1890s, in New York society, women were prisoners in their homes. They put on parties and cared for children. They couldn’t run for office or participate in public life.
“Alva’s outrageous houses were symbols of her frustration. In Consuelo, she produced a spirited, well educated, worldly woman. Consuelo’s royal title gave her a platform from which she became one of the most powerful voices in England for social justice.
“In 1908, Consuelo gave a famous speech in New York to all the city’s important, wealthy, powerful women, denouncing them. She tells them they are pathetic, idle slaves to their husbands. They had power and potential resources, but didn’t use them. They sat at home and planned parties.
“Alva sat in the front row and was mesmerized…She realized women would remain second class citizens until they got the vote….She saw that the suffragette movement was in tatters. Its headquarters was in the middle of nowhere, in Ohio.
“Alva realized she had the money and the visibility. She turned her Newport home into the suffragette headquarters and opened a Washington D.C. office.
“When she is denounced as unladylike,” she said, I haven’t been ladylike in 39 years.’”
“She invites African American women to join the movement. During the war when it’s suggested the suffragettes stand down, she makes sure there are protesters outside the White House every day. ‘Men don’t worry about antagonizing men. Why should we?’” she said.
“The 19th Amendment passes in 1920. Alva wins.”
“Her lesson applies equally today. If you deny legitimacy, people will rise up,” Gladwell said.
Congresswoman Gabrielle ‘Gabby” Gifford and her husband former Navy combat aviator Mark Kelly will speak to Distinguished Speaker Series subscribers in Redondo Beach on Monday, January 12, followed by NBC anchor Jane Pauley on February 11, former Laker star Magic Johnson on March 23, former South Africa president F.W. de Klerk on April 20 and New York Times Columnist David Brooks on May 19. For more information visit SpeakerSeriesLA.com
