On the race to mediocrity

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous. – Robert Green Ingersoll

In Tuesday’s column on Chicago’s impending move away from subminimum wage for tipped workers, we touched on the topic of how some liberals and most progressives embrace and encourage a race to mediocrity. The obvious irony is that these well-intentioned folks who purport to support the “downtrodden” almost always do more harm than good.

But since Homo Sapiens aren’t born with their own self-destruction in mind, there has to be some deeper dynamic at work here, perhaps a less obvious irony. Thank about it. Why would anyone intentionally aim, and then settle, for the middle of the road? There has to be something a bit more sinister than good intentions gone awry here.

And after some serious consideration, I think I’ve come up with the answer.

This “no one should ever feel bad or have to take responsibility for their failures” mien flows directly from the seriously misguided 1980’s Self-Esteem Movement that began in California and proceeded to sweep across the national educational landscape like a plague of locusts.

The theory was if you praised children regardless of their merit, that encouragement would  “create” the basic self-esteem that’s lacking in so many young students. But the program rapidly turned into an insidiously pervasive nightmare because unearned accolades always fall flat. If you’re complimented for everything you do, both the effort and the praise become meaningless.

The terrifying result of this absurdity is now we have generation after generation of children who, despite being repeatedly told they’re the the best thing since sliced bread, can’t succeed at much of anything as adults. Since the problem can’t possibly lie with them, it must be the forces aligned against their consistently worthwhile efforts. That means the only solution is to attack the “system” that prohibits their success.

And that’s exactly what our progressive friends are doing.

Let’s briefly return to our server example. The Chicago waiters and waitresses who are adept at the job and selective about their workplace make much more than minimum wage. But they’ll soon be forced down to the level of their mediocre compatriots who blame everyone else but themselves for their shortcomings. And when the no-longer-tipped competent folks find themselves making minimum wage, they’ll leave the profession to their second-rate second cousins.

Put more simply, in those warped progressive minds, the best way for the mediocre to “succeed” is to eliminate their more effective competition and thus, radically redefine the notion of success.

Along those same entitlement lines, you’ve probably already noticed how those amazingly flexible point-of-sale tablet systems sent the “tipping culture” straight into the Twilight Zone. Buy a $5 medium coffee at your local venue and you’ll likely be met with a computer “suggested tip” of 30 percent, or in some cases, five dollars! And the fact that some folks fervently believe that the short walk to the coffee pot and back somehow justifies a 100 percent beverage surtax is so far beyond the pale I don’t know where to begin. But we have to reward mediocrity or the mediocre might actually have to deal with their own mediocrity.

Somewhere along the line progressives ran afoul of the reality that barista is an entry level position and not a practical career choice.

Our recent discussions on the progressive approach to chronic drug use fits right into this descent to the least common denominator. They’re passing out naloxone at county fairs, installing “newspaper boxes” with 200 doses of the anti-opioid in at-risk neighborhoods, and Illinois is attempting to legalize “safe injection sites” where medical personnel will monitor addict drug use.

That’s the ethical equivalent of throwing a drowning man a flotation ring, but then refusing to let him swim ashore. Actions must have consequences in order for human beings to improve. If you remove the consequences, those drug addicts, who no longer care about themselves, will not only take themselves down, but they’ll do their damnedest to bring the rest of us down with them.

Heroin use should carry a stigma because it’s so flippin’ self-destructive. But apparently even addicts aren’t allowed to feel bad about the behavior that will eventually kill them.

But the worst example of this generational dash to unremarkability takes place in our schools.

The most obvious evidence of this new mediocracy is schools are dropping their gifted and advanced placement programs like they’re hot. In 2021, Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University wrote the following:

Across the country, school districts are removing advanced programs and even standardized testing to achieve an artificial appearance of equity. Indeed, it promises a kind of equity through mediocrity that all families should reject.

I couldn’t have said it better myself so I didn’t!

On a more surreptitious level, our public schools systems are engaged in the kind of grade inflation by which A’s are passed out just like they’re free naloxone. High school graduating classes are routinely “celebrating” 15, 30, or even 200 perfect 4.0 GPA valedictorians. And if everyone’s a valedictorian, then no one is and the title is reduced to another mediocrity.

Worse yet, minority school districts, like U-46, routinely move minority students along to the next grade level despite being woefully behind in the most basic subjects. Again, it can’t possibly be their fault they’re not succeeding so let’s just make the term “education” about as meaningless as their grades.

Of course, that only applies to schools who are foolish enough to still use letter grades.

So, not only are progressives creating yet another generation of “children” who can’t handle the least bit of criticism or endure the most minor setback, but they’re continuing to enable them when they become adults. And the only way to accomplish that is this warped quest towards a bizarre mediocre equity.

Once again, barring a major news story, on Tuesday we’ll discuss how massive entitlement mentalities among the mediocre are leading to serious societal consequences, not the least of which is Trump supporters.