* The Hamilton phenomenon says something weird about the elite psyche. Surely, without the minority angle, nothing about the Founding Fathers would ever seem cool and become a cultural phenomenon. By casting everyone as non-white and making it into a rap video, educated Americans of all political persuasions, Republicans and Democrats, can come together and celebrate a shared history. The dark cast removes the stain of whiteness that is there throughout European and American history.
* Hamilton is a good signal to determine those who are in the elite and those who aspire to be in the elite. I know some people my age (20s) who want nothing more than to see this play. They have the soundtrack, read the Ron Chernow book, and talk about how Miranda is a genius yet they have not seen the play themselves, since they are still broke and paying their massive student loans. It’s really weird to witness but easy to figure out why. Going to or wanting to go see Hamilton is an excellent virtue/progressive signal, maybe the best one out there now since too many people own a Prius.
* Unlike our current crop of pro-plutocrats, however, Alexander Hamilton was most decidedly not pro-immigration:
The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias, and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education, and family.
“The opinion advanced in the Notes on Virginia is undoubtedly correct, that foreigners will generally be apt to bring with them attachments to the persons they have left behind; to the country of their nativity, and to its particular customs and manners. They will also entertain opinions on government congenial with those under which they have lived; or, if they should be led hither from a preference to ours, how extremely unlikely is it that they will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, so essential to real republicanism? There may, as to particular individuals, and at particular times, be occasional exceptions to these remarks, yet such is the general rule. The influx of foreigners must, therefore, tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to change and corrupt the national spirit; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities. In the composition of society, the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency.
“The United States have already felt the evils of incorporating a large number of foreigners into their national mass; by promoting in different classes different predilections in favor of particular foreign nations, and antipathies against others, it has served very much to divide the community and to distract our councils. It has been often likely to compromise the interests of our own country in favor of another. The permanent effect of such a policy will be, that in times of great public danger there will be always a numerous body of men, of whom there may be just grounds of distrust; the suspicion alone will weaken the strength of the nation, but their force may be actually employed in assisting an invader.
* The rock musical Rent (Broadway debut 1996), principally about living with AIDS/HIV, had a very similar vanity-signaling effect on the culture at the time. It was the must-see/hot ticket show for a number a years. It ran for 12 years on Broadway.
