Compassion and the Decline of America
(snip)" In order to ensure that the boys losing by a lopsided score would not feel too bad, the score was changed.
As is happening throughout America, compassion trumped all other values.
- Truth was the first value compassion trashed. In the name of compassion, the adults in charge decided to lie. The score was not 0-0; it was 24-7.
- Wisdom was the second value compassion obliterated. It is unwise to the point of imbecilic to believe that the losing boys were in any way helped by changing the score. On the contrary, they learned lessons that will hamper their ability to mature.
They learned that someone will bail them out when they feel bad.
They learned that they do not have to deal with disappointment in life. Instead, someone in authority will take care of them. (This is how reliance on the state for personal problems -- the worldview of the Left -- is formed early in life.)
They learned that their feelings, not objective standards, are what society deems most important.
They learned that they are not responsible for their behavior. No matter how poorly they perform, there will be no consequences -- sort of like tenure for university professors.
They also learned to think in the feminine -- with an emphasis on feelings -- rather than to cultivate their innate masculine sense that winners win and losers learn to deal with it and move on to the next game.
At the same time, the boys on the winning team learned not to try their best. Why bother?
- Building character was the third value trumped by compassion. People build character far more through handling defeat than through winning. The human being grows up only when forced to deal with disappointment. We remain children until the day we take full responsibility for our lives. Our increasingly feelings-based society has created a pandemic of immaturity in our society. And there are fewer and fewer maturity-creating institutions in our society. Indeed, the opposite is more often the case. Schools, for example, keep young people immature, none more so than college, which serves primarily to postpone adulthood.
- The fourth value that compassion denied here was fairness. It is remarkable how often compassion-based liberals speak of "fairness" in formulating social policy given how unfair so many of their policies are. It was entirely unfair to the winning team to have their score expunged, all their work denied. But for the compassion-first crowd, the winning team is like "the rich" who earn "too much" and should therefore be penalized with a higher tax rate; the winning team scored "too many" runs to be allowed to keep them all.
Compassion in social policy almost always produces unfair results. Compassion for murderers allows them to keep their lives after taking the life of another. Compassion for minorities leads to affirmative action, which means that individuals who are not members of a designated minority will be treated unfairly. Compassion for immigrant children led to bilingual education, which subsequently prevented most of those children from advancing in American society.
Compassion as the primary determinant of behavior is effective in personal life. In making public policy, it is a morally and socially destructive guideline. In fact, it is so bad that thinking people must conclude that its primary purpose is to enable policy makers who are guided by compassion to feel good about themselves."(snip)
Re: Compassion and the Decline of America
Yeah. So let's base our social policy on cruelty. That should produce smashing results. ::)
Re: Compassion and the Decline of America
Nicolina- No dear. Let's base it ON REALITY ! Does everybody win a Nobel Prize; a Pulitzer; a Grammy ; Miss USA ;go to the Final Four; win an Olympic Gold Medal or win "Stripper of the Year" ? Does Harvard accept 100% of those who apply ? Does every recruit make it through Marine boot camp ? Should we limit Ms. Rowling to one "Harry Potter" book every ten years so all the authors don't feel so bad ?
Should Toyota limit its production to 500,000 cars per year so GM and others can make up the difference ? That's essentially what you and yours are advocating.
I don't know about you but I've learned much more from my failures and defeats than from my successes. Competition in all its forms is an integral part of LIFE !Effort, achievement and the pursuit of excellence are all part of life and are values that ought to be respected and promoted.
I hate this "feelings over facts" crap that we see every day in our schools where "Truth" has lost any real meaning and "Excellence" any real value.Part of the problem is the garbage being pushed in the so-called Education Programs coupled with the declining scholarship of the American teaching corps.
Re: Compassion and the Decline of America
I totally agree. All America is producing is a big bunch of softies who don't know what failure is. Not knowing what failure just means they won't/don't know how to improve themselves. Creating a mediocre society. Not exactly what this country was founded by...IMO.
Re: Compassion and the Decline of America
Ok, dear, the little anecdote in the article is an example of parents & coaches being idiots, not an example of social policy based on "compassion."
There's a difference between "compassion for losers-and-criminals only, at the expense of winners and the law-abiding" and just plain old "compassion."
"Compassion" and "fairness" are not antonyms. "Compassion" and "justice" are not mutually exclusive.
I am absolutely not advocating the silliness that was perpetrated by the adults in that story. I agree that it was harmful to the children involved (but not because it caused them to "think in the feminine"--wtf was that all about?!).
I am, however, objecting to the idea that we should disregard any sense of compassion or ideas about the humane treatment of other people (yes, even criminals) in creating our laws and social policies.
Re: Compassion and the Decline of America
Nicolina- One thing I will say is that I do support the "mercy rule" in youth sports. When one team is more than ten runs ahead after a certain point you either call the game or mandate that the leading team clear it's bench and play all the subs. In football, basketball and hockey they can just let the clock run w/o stoppage.
BUT I support doing so 1. to prevent unecessary injuries and 2. to promote "sportsmanship". The winners still win and the losers still come up short.