In Pursuit of Perfection

It has been a while since I have posted to this site, but I have still been writing a weekly column. This column seemed to gain a "companion" from another local media source two days after this was printed. Our local congressman seemed to have a similar situation occur. Oh well, here is the column in its entirety.


The supreme object of life is to live. Few people live. It is true life only to realize one’s own perfection, to make one’s every dream a reality. --Oscar Wilde
It is Sunday evening and the Patriots’ perfect season has just gone the way of so many snowflakes in a blizzard. One could sense it coming. The pressure was mounting with every play. When Eli Manning slipped the grasp of seemingly the entire defensive line to complete the pass to the 25 yard line, destiny seemed to draw up a new game plan for the Patriots.
“It’s only a game,” we tell ourselves. And yet, it seems to be the American way, perhaps the way throughout the rest of the world, to celebrate perfection. Of course, there are those that revel at the thought of ending perfection, as if it were too much to bear the thought of someone being that good at anything. Americans are notorious for only recalling what a team or individual has done in their last game. Sadly, it tends to carry over down to the level of even elementary school, junior high and high school competitions. “Win at any cost” has replaced “just do your best” as the rallying cry for our youth. This mentality permeates our society, though, thankfully, is not totally pervasive.
How do we develop that fine balance between “everybody plays” and “it doesn’t matter who wins” to the idea that one is supposed to win, no matter what? The former takes out the whole idea of competition. When our children are taught that they are entitled to play on a team, then it doesn’t really prepare them for the “real world” that adults find themselves in. You know the one, where large corporations fire or buy out thousands of employees at a time in order to ship the jobs to foreign markets to make stockholders happy. Ask the residents of Galesburg about the “friendly” Maytag man. Ask hundreds of Freeport residents about their jobs at long-gone insurance companies, “lifelong security” at institutions like Newell or Micro Switch or Kelly-Springfield or Burgess or… the list goes on.
A time eventually comes when all of this “fair play” gives way to a sense of entitlement. If one is used to always getting one’s way, then it is expected to continue. A feeling of entitlement subsequently leads one to no longer try and improve or move beyond the status quo. One’s comfort zone then becomes a guiding force, but one that also works like a form of imprisonment. Why move out beyond one’s level of comfort when so little effort is involved to remain there? What motivation is there to grow and develop? Why would one put oneself into any type of competition when it is evident that “it doesn’t matter who wins” as long as one is taken care of? No child will be left behind because the government has mandated it? Left to the discretion of the states, what precludes them then from dumbing down their standards in order to make it seem as if “everyone is winning”? It becomes an extension of entitlement and a further step toward a socialist movement. It worked wonders for the former East Bloc countries, didn’t it?