Popular Culture and Self Esteem

[Mole]

It's becoming obvious that most of us here measure ourselves against popular culture.

And we don't measure ourselves against high culture. We don't measure ourselves against the intellectual life; we don't measure ourselves against the artistic life; and we don't measure ourselves against the spiritual life.

And this is understandable as popular culture knows nothing of high culture, knows nothing of the intellectual life, knows nothing of the artistic life, and knows nothing of the spiritual life. And as a result, nor do we.

And being children of popular culture we suffer anomie, ressentiment, depression and anxiety, only alleviated by a puffed up self esteem.

 

[Arctic Hysteria]

What is "self-esteem" again?
"Esteem": to regard highly or favorably; regard with respect or admiration.

Now I'm going to quote the great man I forever admire, George Carlin

[...]Fortunately, all is not lost, because we know that when he does get to play, whatever games he is allowed to play, the child will never lose. Because in today's America, no child ever loses. There are no losers anymore. Everyone's a winner. No matter what the game or sport or competition, everybody wins. Everybody wins, everybody gets a trophy, no one is a loser. No child these days ever gets to hear those all-important, character-building words, "You lost, Bobby. You lost, you're a loser." They miss out on that. You know what they tell the kid who lost these days? "You were the last winner." A lot of these kids never get to hear the truth about themselves until they're in their twenties, when their boss calls them in and says, "Bobby, clean out your desk and get the fuck outta here; you're a loser."

Of course, Bobby's parents can't understand why he can't hold a job; in school he was always on the honor roll. Well, what they don't understand is that in today's schools, everyone is on the honor roll. Everyone is on the honor roll because in order to be on the honor roll, all you need to do is to maintain a body temperature somewhere roughly in the 90's.

Now, all of this stupid nonsense that children have been so crippled by has grown out of something called the "self-esteem movement." The self-esteem movement began around 1970, and I'm happy to say it has been a complete failure. Studies have repeatedly shown that having high self-esteem does not improve grades, does not improve career achievement, it does not even lower the use of alcohol, and most certainly does not reduce the incidence of violence of any sort, because as it turns out, extremely aggressive, violent people think very highly of themselves. Imagine that; sociopaths have high self-esteem. Who'da thunk?

I love it when that kinda thing happens. I love it when these politically correct ideas crash and burn and wind up in the shit house.

The self-esteem movement revolved around a single idea: that every child is special. Boy, they said it over and over and over, as if to convince themselves. "Every child is special." Every child is clearly not special. They're incomplete; unfinished work, and I never give credit for incomplete work.

But let's say it's true, that every child is special. What about every adult? Isn't every adult special too? And if not, then at what age do you go from being "special" to being not-so-special? And if every adult is special, that means we're all special, and the whole idea loses all its meaning.

It's all bullshit, people, and it's bad for ya.

Thank you Mr. Carlin.

 

[21%]

I'm not familiar with the self-esteem movement, but I think it's important that children learn from a very young age that the world does not revolve around them.

I think a real sense of self-worth is healthy, but that has to be coupled with the awareness that the world does not revolve around you and you are just a tiny speck of dust in the grand scheme of things.

I won't start on the popular culture vs high culture thing again, but I do think that there are things in the world we need to understand: we are nothing, our being is light. We can only laugh and rejoice in our little place amidst the greatness of everything else.