Malcolm Gladwell probably said it best in a November interview with New York magazine about his new book, “Outliers”: “I am explicitly turning my back on, I think, these kind of empty models that say, you know, you can be whatever you want to be. Well, actually, you can’t be whatever you want to be. The world decides what you can and can’t be.”

That’s Charles Blow, writing in the New York Times today.  The gist of “No More Excuses?”:  Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency notwithstanding, disadvantaged African-American children shouldn’t be held accountable for future bad behavior.  As Blow puts it. after cataloging the various woes to which black children are heir [empasis added]:

Most of these kids will rise above their circumstances, but too many will succumb to them. Can we really blame them?

Blame them if as adults they commit anti-social or criminal acts? Yes we can.

Blow does go on to say that to improve the odds for these children, better parenting is required along with “better policies.”  But the thrust of his column is a profoundly pessimistic one.  He explicitly embraces a disbelief in the American dream, rejecting the notion that, Barack Obama notwithstanding, anyone can grow up to be president.

“You can’t be whatever you want to be. The world decides what you can and can’t be,” has to be among the most soul-stifling formulas I’ve read in recent times.

You might say Blow is fighting . . . to keep hopelessness alive.