I HATE the notion peddled in schools nowadays that “everyone is special”. I hate that gifted and talented students are pushed aside, because “no one should have hurt feelings.” I hate it because sometimes, you need that kick in the ass, that failure in life in order to inspire you to do something great, to work harder, to do better and to do more. If we don’t fall down, we never learn how to dust ourselves off and pick ourselves back up. We become a society of people who are perfectly content collecting participation ribbons by the armful.
But life isn’t a participation sport.
The weak don’t survive; indeed they shouldn’t. People need to evolve, to change and to strive for better. Plants, animals and even bacteria evolve in order to survive. Yet humans stagnate. Kids today get a pat on the back and obligatory “atta boy” regardless of whether or not they actually deserve it, and they get it from grade 1 to grade 12, and they stagnate, they never evolve.
And then those kids grow up. They make Christmas lists. They say someone else should pick up the tab for their college tuition. They believe they are “owed” a job. They think someone should pay the down payment on their house, that someone else should pay for their car. They evolve into adults with a highly developed sense of entitlement. Because they are special. They are entitled to all of these things. Public school and their parents told them so.
What is wrong with starting in the mail room? What is so horrendous about working your way up the corporate food chain? Why is it not your responsibility to save your own money? What’s the problem with buying your own car and your own house? What is so evil about finding an idea and making it better?
It all comes back to participation ribbons…
When you “give” someone something and you don’t attach some kind of accountability for how they spend it or how they use it, you take away their need to change their lives; to earn it for themselves. If you celebrate mediocrity, you breed more of it. You take away the need to work hard to earn something bigger, better and worth striving for.
I was listening to a radio host the other day offer garden variety OWSers a job for $15 an hour, but they wouldn't take it. Apparently, the task is “beneath” him or her. They “feel” as if they should be making more. Well folks, guess what, the job market is just like the real estate market; your value is in direct proportion to what someone is willing to pay for services. Period. And when you need to feed your family, it’s time to put your pride away and take whatever job you can get.
I have. In fact, I have put my pride away many, many times, and am a better person for it. There is a certain glory; a sense of accomplishment in sweating hard for what you earn, and truly earning it. There is humility in having to ask for help, but strength in not taking help for long. There is something to be said for knowing you earned a promotion instead of having one handed to you. Pride, work ethic, patience, perseverance, failure, strength, common sense…these are not old-fashioned ideals, but guidelines for better self-esteem -- real self-worth.
Today’s OWS perverted the original sentiment of the movement and turned it into something unrecognizable and self-serving; something full of entitlements. Shame on them.
When all is said and done, when the protesters get that wealth distribution they crave; when they have the house, the car, the job and the college tuition handed to them on silver platters and eat from silver spoons we will all be left with nothing left to work for. Except, maybe, a participation ribbon.
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