My team, Alabama, lost the National College Football Championship game to Georgia on January 10. It broke my heart that they lost, but it made many people happy.
The Georgia Bulldogs won fair and square. They were the better team, especially in the second half, when Alabama usually comes alive. That night Georgia came alive instead.
What bothered me was comments I heard before the game: “It’s not FAIR for Alabama to win all the time! Somebody else DESERVES a chance (said with a whine). How many rings can that Coach Saban wear?”
By what logic is it not FAIR for the best team to win? By what logic does a less prepared team that doesn’t work as hard and doesn’t or can’t recruit the best players DESERVE to win?
But I’m hearing that same lament today in all areas of life. It used to be said that America loves a winner. Now I’m afraid that America loves a loser and thinks the loser should be named a winner so his feelings won’t be hurt.
We’ve developed a skewed idea of what “fair” means. Webster says that “fair” means “marked by impartiality, free of prejudice, based on merit.”
Don’t get me wrong. Everyone deserves a chance to win. It seems to me that every team Alabama plays has that chance to beat them every week of the season. All they have to do is recruit as well, prepare as well and play as well as Alabama. Two teams actually accomplished that this year, Texas A&M and Georgia. Both teams won fairly.
We’ve become a nation led more by our super-sensitive feelings than by our logic and ability to reason. Everyone “feels” better if they win, though logic tells us everyone can’t be a winner. But we’ve brought up a generation who can’t stand competition. They want to be treated like winners and rewarded like winners, even if they can’t and don’t win, even if they don’t try.
So all the kids on the team get a trophy for putting on the team uniform, whether they contributed anything to the team’s success or not. Mom and Dad pat them on the back and say, “Good game!” and the kiddies feel good about themselves, though they aren’t sure why.
In theory, No Child Left Behind was a great mandate for education. But it would take a tremendous financial and human commitment to actually prepare every struggling child to learn what the better prepared or more academically talented classmates can learn. Most districts couldn’t make that commitment.
So the way this worked out in practical terms to make every child appear not to have been left behind was to lower the standards and call whatever the child learned a “success.” I’m speaking generally, of course. I’m sure that in some cases real efforts were made to fill in the gaps for all students and make them truly successful. But for the most part “equality” was achieved by lowering standards, such as dumbing down textbooks and materials and lowering grading standards—what used to be a B was now called an A.
It became “unfair” to hold a child back for inferior work or inadequate effort or to deny anyone a diploma for not passing classes. Children would feel bad if they didn’t succeed! So things got shifted around to give “alternate” ways to pass. More students graduated and the school looked good, but students left without the real qualifications for doing much beyond high school.
The kids who grew up under such tender concern for their feelings and lack of concern for their real education are now in the workforce. Sort of. It’s hard for them to be productive as workers when they didn’t have to be very productive as students. It’s “not fair” for them to have to be on time and stay off their social media for a whole shift! What about their right to feel good?
In fact, what many workers want now is the right not to work at all. And many have left the workforce. Try to find someone to take your money in a department store this weekend. Then look for a fastfood place where you can go in, get waited on and eat inside.
Oh, but it’s unfair that non-working workers miss a paycheck so they now expect their “trophy” for sitting on the bench — a check from Uncle Sam every month. President Biden, who must have been on the committee to hand out trophies to non-players, has the checks in the mail. Ironically, the non-workers will expect the postal and banking personel to be working, though, so that their unearned checks can be delivered to them promptly!
Alabama will get another chance to win a championship next year. I’ll bet the players are already in the weight room, the coaches are out strategizing and spring practice will be tough.
I don’t think Coach Nick Saban cares whether the players feel good about the training schedule they’re facing. I think he just wants them to feel good about winning.
