Long ago, when our society was still cohesive enough to at least have a few common points of consensus, the one thing that most of us could agree upon was the desirability of maintaining a meritocracy. Recognizing that some people are better at some things than others are, whether by talent or by effort, we agreed on the desirability of awarding recognition and success according to achievement. Racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination were not only offensive but counterproductive, because they set up artificial barriers preventing the more deserving individuals from fully achieving, and rewarded the less deserving.
My, my, but how times change. Currently, we are entering the era of “equality of outcome,” in which everyone is deemed equally entitled to comparable success and recognition, regardless of their skills and the amount of effort exerted. This seems to be the result of the “everyone gets a trophy” culture introduced during the 1980s and 1990s, which discouraged all competition in order to spare the feelings of the unsuccessful. Everyone became a “winner” and entitled to have their self-esteem endlessly bolstered. Recall the widely satirized 1980s California self-esteem commission, which recommended that everyone be slathered with unearned praise for merely existing.
The modern online music world offers some insights into what we have become. Streaming allows anyone to post their musical performances online, without any gatekeepers or barriers, where the music is easily available to anyone with a computer or smartphone. Millions of aspiring rockstars have posted their music. Records are kept of the number of views of each tune, and not surprisingly, some are more popular than others.
In a recent routine, comedian Bill Maher offered some cutting commentary on “trophy-ism,” the success gap, and the complaints by some frustrated fame-seekers that “not being famous isn’t fair.” He focused on complaints that streaming unfairly failed to recognize all aspirants equally, and that only a few musicians (the “good ones”) get any attention.
Maher cited an article last year in Rolling Stone magazine complaining that “streaming hasn’t just upheld the gap between music’s haves and have-nots, it’s widened it,” and that pretty much the same musicians are still getting most of the attention. Rolling Stone went on to whine that almost all the streaming activity goes to the top 4 percent of the artists, and then opined that “in a perfect world, the bottom 1 percent of artists would get 1 percent of the activity.” In other words, success should be proportionately distributed.
Think about that for a moment. Apparently, the ideas of talent, merit and personal tastes have become passé, and every musical aspirant is equally deserving of success, regardless of the quality of their music and the lack of public interest. Any failure to receive recognition must be “unfair.”
The streaming world, with direct and nearly universal access, is the most democratic environment possible. How can it be unfair? And who do you blame for the “unfairness” in viewership? The public who fail to recognize the unquestionable beauty of your work?
It turns out that Andy Warhol’s famous prognostication that “in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” wasn’t actually a prediction. It was a mandate.
I wonder how many of these whiners stream music that they don’t like? In the interests of “fairness,” would they be willing to listen to, say, the soothing tones of a bagpipe recital posted by the proud parents of a 7-year-old “artiste”?
To be fair, this phenomena isn’t new. Kids have always felt they were special. I recall tormenting a guitar in my youth, sure that, despite my increasingly obvious lack of talent, I might somehow get discovered and turned into a rockstar. Of course, this was the era of the Monkees, a contrived TV show band that cast actors who had to be taught musical skills in order to play their roles, so perhaps my dreams had some basis.
Traditionally, the realization that you were not special and would have to compete against others was part of reaching adulthood. But, as we have seen with the growing outcry over “income inequality,” times have changed. We now have fully grown people arguing that the guy who spends the day playing video games in his parents’ basement is as deserving of recognition and success as those who developed the COVID-19 vaccines, or new, groundbreaking technologies. “Equality of income” is the rallying cry for the adult participation trophy.
How far should we go to accommodate subjective feelings? Consider those who complain that math is “racist” because it accepts only the “right” answer, and doesn’t allow for personal interpretations. Would you prefer to have physicians and airline pilots who use their personal “interpretation” of what their job should entail, or would you rather that they had a mastery of recognized skills?
Competition can be cruel and the results sometimes disappointing. And, of course, life isn’t always fair, and success or failure can sometimes come down to just dumb luck. Still, I prefer a world in which I have some control over my own outcome, instead of having it determined by the diktats of politicians reacting to the votes and howls of the mob. Δ
John Donegan is a retired attorney in Pismo Beach who still has his guitar, while his dog and neighbors wish he didn’t. Send comments for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 8-18, 2021.
I take it you agree with Chief Justice Roberts that the US is not racist enough to justify the Voting Rights Act, and that voter suppression is necessary to protect your God-given property rights from the “votes and howls of the mob.” You decry equal outcome replacing equal opportunity, but maybe those voters that John Kavanagh and you don’t deem to be “quality voters” just want equitable funding of public services so they are healthy and educated enough to participate in our democracy, and equal respect and restraint from law enforcement. That’s called community, not Communism.
I’ll give John credit: He beat the living HELL out of that straw man he stood up.
Bravo John. Well stated. Keep the faith, my man. Capitalism will outperform communism always and forever, but they will always cry foul instead of competing for outcome and INCOME. The fact that you can’t keep up doesn’t mean I have to slow down, the fact that you can’t compete doesn’t mean I have to try less hard or give you preferential treatment. If I do, it’s because I am compassionate. That cannot be legislated or taxed from me.
I can’t figure out what the point of this column is, other than publicizing the writer’s disappointment that he continues to be a crappy guitar player because he never put in the time and effort necessary to get better.
Everyone deserves food, shelter, education and proper healthcare. Our world has the ways and means to provide this for everyone. What we don’t have yet is the will to make sure it happens. But when we do, the world will quickly become much better for everyone regardless of their “merits”.
@rightword: “Crappy guitar player”? I’ll have you know that my guitar playing is beautiful, and that my dog is a notorious liar who swears he wasn’t the one who called the police. And just like the indifferent worker with no skills who shows up late, if he bothers to show up at all, who figures he is entitled to a “living wage” so he can live comfortably in pricey SLO, I figure I am entitled to fame and success in my musical career because that is what “fairness” requires.
When John attended law school, you could work 480 hours (a summer) and afford college tuition (say, a law school). Today it takes 2,500 hours. Such merit John!
When John says results can be disappointing, he’s referring to crippling debt and poverty as simply disappointing. And he’s referring to demands for a livable minimum wage and healthcare as demands for “income equality”. Literally nobody is actually demanding “income equality”, but I can’t think of a better argument for income redistribution than a member of history’s wealthiest and most prosperous generation (one of the first to ever receive Social Security) claiming that the working poor asking for better conditions are a “howling mob” or simply play video games in a basement all day.
Anyway, here’s John asking for a participation trophy and some respect for surviving past the age of 30:
https://www.newtimesslo.com/sanluisobispo/…
In the United States we do not even offer equal access to quality public education. Wealthy communities have wealthy public schools with more money poured into them. Children from disadvantaged communities have schools with considerably less funding. Thus the cycle continues. How can we allow such inequality i’ve treatment? This basic fact is rarely even talked about. The result: if you’re poor you go to a poor school. If you’re wealthy, you go to a better school. That’s not the way it should be.
Kudos to John Donegon for speaking truth to the whiners and critics who betray American values by disavowing the belief in America as a meritocracy. As an educator, I see the mindset that he criticizes being promoted everyday, and the results are disastrous. We now have young people that think they deserve an A grade simply for showing up for class, never mind that they can’t read, write or think critically.
It is amusing to see the whacky liberals criticize Mr. Donegon in these blogs, obviously he has touched a nerve in their ‘race to the bottom’ thinking.
Meritocracy is when our educators can’t come up with anything more substantive to say to critics other than “whacky liberals” and “American values.”
Let’s just keep this going in the spirit of educator Steve Edwards’ style:
It’s amusing to see him criticize the criticism. Obviously we touched a nerve. What a whacky conservative. Truly a “race to the bottom.” Where are your American values, Steve?
Folks,
As we see here, we now have a man of poor character who has nothing better to do than criticize the diverse thoughts of others, and it’s now obvious that the nerve of the whacky liberals has been unearthed. His defense of the gutter dwellers is contemptible, he and the other goofy Democrats do not deserve our support or even respect.
Abandon Democrats in 2024.
Steve I’m not criticizing you and John because your thoughts are different. I’m criticizing you because your thoughts are bad, unsubstantiated, lazy talking points. The best you can do is “whacky liberals” and “goofy Democrats”? “Poor character”? I’m so triggered. Embarrassing.
Contrary to the divisive, bigoted comments above, there has never been any student who expected an A grade simply for showing up to class. Some of these conservatives extremist, Putin- trolls and belligerent racists need to come up with some new clichs. Maybe if they had facts to back up their statements they wouldnt be so insistent on making absurd exaggerations at grossly false equivalencys time and time again. Give me the name of one single student in the United States who expected to be graded with an A simply for showing up to class. You cant do it. Youre full of BS and unfortunately you feel compelled to spew it all over the Internet for nothing more than selfish reasons. And you cant even be honest about it.
Let us disregard all these commenters who preach hate and pessimism and fear of others. No civilization is ever advanced based on those rotten ideals. Americas greatest successes have never been based on those perverse and self-serving ideals. Thats a fact that you can see spanning thousands of years. Hatred and selfishness may win some battles, but it is always love that wins the war. Love always prevails in the end. Its never been any different. Love is where its at. Love all, serve all. We have a great future ahead of us. Thank you Lord.
The Trump presidency was a godsend, clearly demonstrating that trumpist ideals of selfishness and authoritarianism leads to sickness chaos and violence in the street. Extremists had their way and it proved to be a horrendous failure that will be clearly re-counted in the annals of history. In their arrogance and foolishness. Unable to control their monkey minds, those who would destroy democracy have self identified themselves and it is not a pretty portrait. Yes, they are deplorable as they continue to lie and try to recruit others to join them in their hatred and aggression, and greed. They are walking, talking blogging failures imagining themselves heroes standing neck deep tying to push back a strong tide. We will pray for them and move on to the bright future that is over the horizon for all those and believe in the power of love over hate. And let us pray for those who were led astray by the haters, propagandists and would be dictators. We welcome your return to the bright side.