I am not a regular viewer of the long-running animated show, The Simpsons but there is an episode, which sticks out for me. In it, the school becomes divided by gender, due to Principal Skinner’s offhand comment that boys are better at math than girls. To the show’s resident intellectual, Lisa Simpson, this division seems at first glance a most perfect thing made in heaven. Because of the disorder (obviously, mainly caused by boys) at the school, she is convinced by dividing the school by gender, real learning will take place (especially of mathematics). Lisa enters the school; she is overjoyed with the wall exhibition of paintings by women artists. She goes into the mathematics class, expecting a rigorous training but all she gets from the teacher is a series of ambiguous questions: “How do numbers make you feel? What does a ‘2’ feel like?”
Well, it goes without saying that Lisa is extremely angry and decides to cross the fortress-like wall into the boys’ section of the school, where she can learn some real math. She is greeted by disaster, mayhem, graffiti (and music from Stanley Kubrick’s take on “Clockwork Orange”). She bumps into Principal Skinner (who has been demoted to Assisted Groundskeeper Skinner) and asks what in the world is happening. Skinner refuses to give Lisa a straight answer. Instead, he quickly mumbles: “All I know is that everyone is best at everything, and nobody is better than anyone else.”
It seems to me that Skinner’s statement encapsulates as to what is happening to America these days. Thanks to the “doctrine of sameness,” we are not seeing much (or any) flow of creativity. Instead, we are faced with ideological drivel. Thanks to the “PC” police, “the artist” is engaged only in an abject shock effect, but rarely does he speak the truth.
And then there is this strange American habit of endlessly praising and rooting for the underdog. R. R. Reno writes that this “very American egalitarian ethos prizes amiable stupidity over demanding intelligence.” Intellectual life, real intellectual life is suffering and is on the verge of extinction. Reno also says that one thing we have to careful about is the “self-congratulating mediocrity.”
I will rightfully concede that there aren’t many true intellectuals left in this society. High-brow academics who write unpronounceable, jargonistic works that lack anything, which even remotely resembles a quest for truth and wisdom are at fault here. Ordinary people are often times left out of the conversation. This is one of the reasons for the American fascination with the underdog and acceptance of mediocrity: it is truly a way of going too far to the other extreme. This fascination enters the realm of cheap sentimentality and primitive emotionalism.
But I do think that currently, our biggest problem that deals with the issue of mediocrity is the society’s failure to assign value judgments. If we abdicate the throne of responsibility of making value judgments, then we will be faced with poor art, poor music, poor literature, poor economists, poor politicians, not to mention, poor everyday services—all clearly devoid of soul.
One aspect of this conundrum is a misunderstanding of a difference between a judgment of human action and judgment of human being. Man’s inherent dignity should always be affirmed and should certainly move towards the “Yes” of human existence. This, in my mind, is a non-negotiable principle and reality of what it means to be human. Judging someone’s ontological structure will often times result in ad hominem attacks, which are useless and demeaning both for the one who judges and the one who is being judged.
Placing a value judgment, however, on an act committed by man is something not only acceptable but also necessary for the survival of free society (such as America). If I cease to do such a thing, I will slowly and incrementally begin to accept a wide variety of ideologies while truth becomes just a faint memory.
Some may be tempted to think that it is good enough if, let’s say, a philosophical system has some truth in it, even if it is built on a falsehood. C.S. Lewis has an excellent response to that: “By mixing a little truth with it, they had made their lie a little stronger.” “Good enough” should not be our option. The biggest danger of mediocrity today is the fact that it has become tyrannical, and that we are slowly acquiescing. This is how the human spirit is broken. And no death is worse than the spiritual one. Once man loses hope, he will become abject and tired. His fatigue will not only render him dejected but also thought-less. Value judgment? Who cares?! But we must care because any tyranny is a system (in this case, an emotionalist one), whose sole purpose is to fracture the human spirit and mind.
No, this should not be accepted. Let me end with the words of a man far more wiser than myself, John Paul II: “Do not be afraid; do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”
Well, it goes without saying that Lisa is extremely angry and decides to cross the fortress-like wall into the boys’ section of the school, where she can learn some real math. She is greeted by disaster, mayhem, graffiti (and music from Stanley Kubrick’s take on “Clockwork Orange”). She bumps into Principal Skinner (who has been demoted to Assisted Groundskeeper Skinner) and asks what in the world is happening. Skinner refuses to give Lisa a straight answer. Instead, he quickly mumbles: “All I know is that everyone is best at everything, and nobody is better than anyone else.”
It seems to me that Skinner’s statement encapsulates as to what is happening to America these days. Thanks to the “doctrine of sameness,” we are not seeing much (or any) flow of creativity. Instead, we are faced with ideological drivel. Thanks to the “PC” police, “the artist” is engaged only in an abject shock effect, but rarely does he speak the truth.
And then there is this strange American habit of endlessly praising and rooting for the underdog. R. R. Reno writes that this “very American egalitarian ethos prizes amiable stupidity over demanding intelligence.” Intellectual life, real intellectual life is suffering and is on the verge of extinction. Reno also says that one thing we have to careful about is the “self-congratulating mediocrity.”
I will rightfully concede that there aren’t many true intellectuals left in this society. High-brow academics who write unpronounceable, jargonistic works that lack anything, which even remotely resembles a quest for truth and wisdom are at fault here. Ordinary people are often times left out of the conversation. This is one of the reasons for the American fascination with the underdog and acceptance of mediocrity: it is truly a way of going too far to the other extreme. This fascination enters the realm of cheap sentimentality and primitive emotionalism.
But I do think that currently, our biggest problem that deals with the issue of mediocrity is the society’s failure to assign value judgments. If we abdicate the throne of responsibility of making value judgments, then we will be faced with poor art, poor music, poor literature, poor economists, poor politicians, not to mention, poor everyday services—all clearly devoid of soul.
One aspect of this conundrum is a misunderstanding of a difference between a judgment of human action and judgment of human being. Man’s inherent dignity should always be affirmed and should certainly move towards the “Yes” of human existence. This, in my mind, is a non-negotiable principle and reality of what it means to be human. Judging someone’s ontological structure will often times result in ad hominem attacks, which are useless and demeaning both for the one who judges and the one who is being judged.
Placing a value judgment, however, on an act committed by man is something not only acceptable but also necessary for the survival of free society (such as America). If I cease to do such a thing, I will slowly and incrementally begin to accept a wide variety of ideologies while truth becomes just a faint memory.
Some may be tempted to think that it is good enough if, let’s say, a philosophical system has some truth in it, even if it is built on a falsehood. C.S. Lewis has an excellent response to that: “By mixing a little truth with it, they had made their lie a little stronger.” “Good enough” should not be our option. The biggest danger of mediocrity today is the fact that it has become tyrannical, and that we are slowly acquiescing. This is how the human spirit is broken. And no death is worse than the spiritual one. Once man loses hope, he will become abject and tired. His fatigue will not only render him dejected but also thought-less. Value judgment? Who cares?! But we must care because any tyranny is a system (in this case, an emotionalist one), whose sole purpose is to fracture the human spirit and mind.
No, this should not be accepted. Let me end with the words of a man far more wiser than myself, John Paul II: “Do not be afraid; do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”
2 comments:
Wow, this was an amazing post! I especially like the graf about the failure to assign judgment values: "One aspect of this conundrum is a misunderstanding of a difference between a judgment of human action and judgment of human being."
Molto bene!
Julie, thanks for reading. So glad you liked it. I must tell you, I am just so sick and tired of accepting this mode of behavior. And the worst is that all that is beautiful will suffer if we keep accepting. Thanks again!
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