Rewarded By Force

Okay for once I am moving off plan and just writing something that is not a review or a contest. I just want you to think about the phrase "rewarded by force". Seriously think about it. Are we so far removed from this concept in this day and age?

I am certain that I would not be able to lift my head at the blogger conventions if I didn't write something off the wall and rant-ish every once in a while. Sure, we haven't come to the point where some crazy man in a black suit and dark glasses holds a gun to our head while pushing gift cards on us, but how far away are we?

We seem to be living in a world where increasingly people feel that they are owed something for the monumental task of breathing. We want to spare people's self esteem so everyone gets a reward. The concept of competition, reward and gain for hard work has seemed to slip far away. "There are no losers" is a motto I see more and more in schools and sports. A few weeks ago I read about a gentlemen who was taking time off from work to go see his granddaughter graduate from kindergarten. I was appalled. Looking into it, I found that this was not an uncommon practice, and that increasingly schools had graduation from kindergarten, primary school, middle school and other levels.

Now I am not sure about you, but when I look in a dictionary I find that graduation is typically defined as finishing a course of study in college or high school. I mean the definition of graduation actually uses the words "college" and "high school" to define what graduation is.

Any which way you look at it graduation should not be a right. It should be something that is earned. Holding graduations at mutliple levels just cheapens the experience of accomplishment and fosters feelings of entitlement.

Plenty of parents feel that there should be no last place in sports that every team deserves recognition and reward in order to preserve self esteem. If that is the case where is the motivation to do better? How will these kids learn to take it on the chin if they are passed over for a promotion or didn't receive a Christmas bonus like their coworker. How long until the expectation of reward becomes part of the Human Resource agenda and we have "expectation training" to make sure everyone feels good in their job. Rewards are earned and they should not be forced.

I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure that not everyone is a winner. A lot of people out there are losers. Its that simple. Fostering the idea that everyone is a winner or that everyone deserves a reward for trying their best is insane. The only time I will ever agree to anything remotely like that is when they take that concept and apply it to Las Vegas or the Lottery. I tried my best, I know I didn't have the winning numbers, but since I at least showed up and tried...