No Pedestal?

It is now time for my second post on this blog. That makes what, a post every 9 months. How do you keep up? Yeah, you in the corner pretending not to want to read this blog. I know you are the only one reading it, so you don’t have to worry about me revealing your secret here. I really need to start posting more often. I have had other ideas for posts; I just haven’t typed them up when I was thinking of them. Maybe then I will get more people reading this.

Anyways, on with the reason for this post.

I was listening to my favorite radio show this morning, Two guys in the morning on C101 The Rock (FM 101.3 and also on I heart radio in case you want to listen in) when they started talking about a local high school that was planning on changing the way the graduates entered during the ceremony. Apparently, this high school (I forget which one it was) decided that it would be unfair to all the students to have the ones that actually took the time to learn what they were teaching there and became honor students enter first. This school determined it would be fairer to have the honor students mixed into the crowd, so they wouldn’t stand out and make the other students feel bad.

Yeah, why would the school want to show that there are some students that did what they were supposed to be doing while they were there? In fact, let us follow their example. Let’s take away all the prestigious awards for sports and entertainment. Once a year we will have just one big awards ceremony where everyone that shows up gets a participation award. The inscription can read: “This award is given to John (or Jane) Doe for being a special little boy (or girl).” Then we can all go back home and feel special because we got an award.

But, would we all feel special? After all, we would all get this award every year just because we are alive (though with some people out there that would be quite an achievement). I don’t think it would take long for most people to get lethargic; after all, why try to stand out from the crowd when everyone is treated the same.

Now I know there are some people out there that will say, “I would do my best no matter what. I would be proud of myself and that is all that matters.” Yeah, sure it is. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that that would be true for a while. But, no matter how altruistic your motives are everyone crave attention for their accomplishments. After so long of nobody noticing your exceptional efforts (nobody would want to make someone else feel bad in this world after all) you to would finally give in and not try. So, we would need something else to motivate people then.

Hmmm…….

I know…..money! That is what could motivate people. Hell, it is what motivates a lot out there now. The better you perform … wait a minute. If you give someone more money for a job well done that might not be fair to someone else. Damn, guess that isn’t the answer. We would all have to make exactly the same amount of money.

But, thankfully we don’t live in a world like that. We live in a world that does rewards those that work hard. It’s a world that takes my first Law of Life into account. Even nature rewards the best. It is called natural selection. After all, you don’t really want to live in a world of lazy people. Do you?

And before I forget, don’t worry about the high school honor students. After several students and parent complained the honor students are once again going to lead the graduating class into the ceremony.