The War Against Achievement
A friend
recently sent me a link to an inspiring video about an upbeat young black man
who was born without arms. It showed him going to work -- unlike the record
number of people living on government payments for "disabilities"
that are far less serious, if not fictitious.
How is this
young man getting to work? He gets into his car and drives there -- using
controls set up so that he can operate the car with his feet.
What kind of
work does he do, and how does he do it? He is involved in the design of racing
cars. He sits at his computer, looking at the screen, with the keyboard on the
floor, where he uses his toes as others use their fingers.
His story
recalls the story of Helen Keller, who went to an elite college and on to a
career, despite being both deaf and blind. Her story was celebrated in books,
in television documentaries and in an inspiring movie, "The Miracle
Worker."
But our culture
has changed so much over the years that the young man with no arms is unlikely
to get comparable publicity. Helen Keller's achievement was seen as an
inspiration for others, but this young man's achievement is more like a threat
to the prevailing ideology of our times.
The vision on
which the all-encompassing and all-controlling welfare state was built is a
vision of widespread helplessness, requiring ever more expanding big
government. Our "compassionate" statists would probably have wanted
to take this young man without arms, early on, and put him in some government
institution.
But to
celebrate him in the mainstream media today would undermine a whole ideological
vision of the world -- and of the vast government bureaucracies built on that
vision. It might even cause people to think twice about giving money to
able-bodied men who are standing on street corners, begging.
The last thing
the political left needs, or can even afford, are self-reliant individuals. If
such people became the norm, that would destroy not only the agenda and the
careers of those on the left, but even their flattering image of themselves as
saviors of the less fortunate.
Victimhood is
where it's at. If there are not enough real victims, then fictitious victims
must be created -- as with the claim that there is "a war on women."
Why anyone would have an incentive or a motivation to create a war on women in
the first place is just one of the questions that should be asked of those who
promote this political slogan, obviously designed for the gullible.
The real war --
which is being waged in our schools, in the media and among the intelligentsia
-- is the war on achievement. When President Obama told business owners,
"You didn't build that!" this was just one passing skirmish in the
war on achievement.
The very word
"achievement" has been replaced by the word "privilege" in
many writings of our times. Individuals or groups that have achieved more than
others are called "privileged" individuals or groups, who are to be
resented rather than emulated.
The length to
which this kind of thinking -- or lack of thinking -- can be carried was shown in
a report on various ethnic groups in Toronto. It said that people of Japanese
ancestry in that city were the most "privileged" group there, because
they had the highest average income.
What made this
claim of "privilege" grotesque was a history of anti-Japanese
discrimination in Canada, climaxed by people of Japanese ancestry being
interned during World War II longer than Japanese Americans.
If the concept
of achievement threatens the prevailing ideology, the reality of achievement
despite having obstacles to overcome is a deadly threat. That is why the
achievements of Asians in general -- and of people like the young black man
with no arms -- make those on the left uneasy. And why the achievements of
people who created their own businesses have to be undermined by the President
of the United States.
What would
happen if Americans in general, or blacks in particular, started celebrating
people like this armless young man, instead of trying to make heroes out of
hoodlums? Many of us would find that promising and inspiring. But it would be a
political disaster for the left -- which is why it is not likely to happen.
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