You Can't Outlaw Failure: It only makes it harder to succeed.

OpinionJournal.com ^ | 06/10/2003 | Pete Du Pont

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Ten years ago the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan published an illuminating and unpopular analysis of American social conscience. "Defining Deviancy Down" explained how America had accepted high rates of violent crime and illegitimacy, rationalizing them as socially acceptable rather than doing anything to lower them. He noted that urban elites increasingly extolled rather than criticized broken families, notwithstanding studies showing a high correlation between single-parent families and educational failure.

[Mears]

This is frightening,especially the medical schools.

What in the name of God is wrong with having high standards? What good is a high school diploma if they just hand them out to everyone who attends classes? A college degree is meaningless if grades are lowered so that everyone can become honor students.

The whole thing is nuts!Some people do well academically,some don't,but that doesn't mean that those that don't are doomed to failure.

[mc5cents]

Some people do well academically,some don't,but that doesn't mean that those that don't are doomed to failure.

Amen. We are not all born to be academics. In fact it would be a terrible world if we were. Who would fix your plumbing? Your car? Your lights that won't light? Who would pick up your garbage? Who would do your laundry? Who would hold the door for you as you waltz into the Ritz?

Thank God for all those people who do the things that make life worth living.

[RightWhale]

The whole thing is nuts!

Yes, it appears to be so. This is simply because we lack the philosophical or literary framework to string these pieces together. Unless you count Charles Reich's utopia with a string orchestra in every lobby, there hasn't been a high-caliber utopia written since 1949. We desperately need a philosopher to sort this mess out for us. Don't look on the liberal side of the aisle, they are done.

[45Auto]

The entire basis of Marxism-Leninism is faulty: Socialism punishes success and rewards failure, therefore breeding more failure. At the heart of the matter are the teacher's unions - they are the Guardians of Failure. Until we as a nation destroy these unions, nothing will change for the better.

[RightWhale]

Until we as a nation destroy these unions

They aren't going to go away anytime soon. Until we come up with some idea of what we are actually doing right now and how we need to evolve this society, we will be stuck at this impasse. Socialism has run its course and there is nothing beside modified Skinnerism and Ecotopia offered to replace it. Slim pickings. Some accuse Conservatives of wanting to turn time back 200 years, while socialism is also that old, and has run out. There is Freud and the super-ego, and Teilhard de Chardin and the noosphere, but they seem kind of impractical at the moment, just kind of descriptive. The philosopher would be American, of course, but America is a land of 300 million truck drivers and only one philosopher, so you don't get a lot of choice.

[fishbabe]

if the doctor is found incompetent thats the schools fault...sue them.i guarantee after a few high malpractice wins against them,these schools won't let anybody out till they know EXACTLY what their doing ...

[45Auto]

The philosopher would be American, of course, but America is a land of 300 million truck drivers
and only one philosopher, so you don't get a lot of choice.

The basic problem is "too much government". The Founders understood this very well and that's why they
wrote the Constitution as a LIMITING document on the authority of government. They knew that clever
and ambitious politicians would begin immediately to fashion ways to erode and obfuscate the "original
intent" of the document.

So, today, we live under an oligarchy of professional politicians who care nothing for limited power. They
are happy little whores who gladly suck up the money and favors lavished on them by special interests in a
never-ending orgy. The NEA and its state affiliates along with the Federal Department of Education have
nearly destroyed what was once fairly decent public education. The unions have bought the pimps in
Congress; there will be no help there. I cannot think of any peaceful solution to the dilemma of down-sizing
government authority; the ballot box will not be sufficient. What is happening is that those who can afford it
are putting their children into private schools. This seems to be the only possible short-term solution.

[RightWhale]

The school system is a tool of the oligarchy. The question is the nature of the oligarchy. I don't believe it is the politicians at all who control us. The politicians are another tool of the oligarchy. But lately the system is beginning to resemble anarchy, so perhaps the oligarchs are losing it.