XPost: alt.arts.poetry.comments   
   From: vze1sar1@verizon.net   
      
   Dale Houstman wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   > Chandra P Das wrote:   
   >   
   >> An ode to failure   
   >>   
   >   
   >   
   > This is actually fairly interesting as a meditayion on failure and   
   > success, but - although it flirts with the idea - it still emphasizes   
   > far too much the idea that success is measured mostly in financial   
   > terms. This may be true - as far as the world-at-large goes - but a lot   
   > of those "losers" (and I know many of them, including myself!) are   
   > really successes.   
   >   
   > As for the American education system vis a vis this discussion, while it   
   > is true the system is more fluid than the European models, it too   
   > emphasizes far too blatantly the idea that success is only measurable in   
   > terms of professional achievement and - yes- bank accounts. And the   
   > notion of streaming isn't totally weithout merit itself, since it has   
   > the potential to educate students in the idea that not everyone HAS to   
   > become wealthy or powerful within a certain slim wedge of endeavor to be   
   > considered worthwhile. As you imply (but do not quite emphasize) many   
   > so-called "losers" are the only reason a few "winners" have any success   
   > at all; Ray Kroc would be a janitor too if he couldn't have convinced   
   > thousands of mainly young people (although - now - increaingly older   
   > people) that working for almost nothing was good enough for them. In   
   > fact, almost all the really important functions within a "successful"   
   > business are accomplished by "losers." The fact is, capitalism demands   
   > that more and more people be as like slaves as is legally possible. Of   
   > course, most large capitalist entities can no longer get away with out   
   > and out enslavement (although many businesses function in countries   
   > where this is a concern), but - as wages continue to be frozen at early   
   > 1970s levels, and the top one percent continue to gobble up more and   
   > more of the basic resources, a state closely resembling slavery is   
   > emerging more and more.   
   >   
   > So while it is "practical" to teach the importance of money and position   
   > (as opposed to a successful imaginative life or a successful family   
   > life, etc.) this practicality (read "utilitarianism") only supports the   
   > status quo. Which isn't precisely what I (and many others) really desire   
   > from education.   
   >   
   > But still - interesting.   
   >   
      
   Very good, I agree. Some additional thoughts:   
      
   It's pretty easy in our society for anybody at any rung of the   
   socio-economic (or even the purely intellectual) ladder to feel like a   
   'loser'. This was probably supposed to be a light-humor article but it   
   has some serious undercurrents. It is precisely the creation and   
   branding of losers that keeps our capitalism-gone-wild going. To take it   
   a step further: *everybody* has to feel like a loser in order for our   
   rabid strain of capitalism to keep flourishing. The system has to   
   constantly keep reminding everyone of what they don't have, all they   
   could have if only they worked harder, etc. -- it's a rather simple   
   message: there's more, much more to be had than you have already, no   
   matter what you may have. This is the key to sustaining a robust   
   capitalistic climate. Notions of rest, contentment, adequacy and   
   security are mortal enemies of capitalism. If an Investment Banker   
   (probably the biggest champion of hyper-capitalism) who got a bonus of   
   only $100,000 this January isn't made to feel like an underachieving   
   loser in his environment then how is he going to be expected to motivate   
   himself to bust his balls harder through the year?   
      
   But anyway, hyper-capitalism is not as crude and simple as it may seem   
   at face value to discerning minds -- it performs a very fascinatingly   
   delicate balancing act. It must make everybody feel like a 'loser' yet   
   all the while it has to keep everybody feeling like they're still in the   
   race towards 'success'. Drop out of the race for a minute (for whatever   
   reason -- leisure, art, meditation, injury, pregnancy ...) and you   
   become a liability. Capitalism has one message, and this message must be   
   received by all of its constituents: you are only a minute away from a   
   million! This is what drives America. Even a homeless guy strumming a   
   guitar into a tin cup outside of a grocery store knows that he is only a   
   minute away from a million bucks.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)