One of my friends wrote a piece on Facebook about the “sissification” of Americans, wherein he made the argument that OWS protestors are part of a larger, more endemic problem; namely, that this nation has created a generation of entitled, spineless whiners who can’t deal with losing.  I wrote this response to him, and, after expanding it slightly, I’ve posted it here, in the hope that you will read it.  

I agree wholly that our generation hasn’t been well-conditioned for losing.  I was actually discussing this a couple of weeks ago with my friend John.  While I am predictably terrible at capital-S Sports, my youth was an interminable succession of basketball camps, youth league baseball, karate tournament ass-kickings, and absolutely shameful wrestling losses.  What’s important is that I learned about losing: that losing isn’t the end of the game, that there is always someone better or more talented, and that, while hard work didn’t make me a winner, it was a responsibility to my teammates to try as hard as I could and not give up. After a while, losing didn’t feel so bad: it just felt like a part of life. And winning? Winning felt GREAT, far better than it would have had I not lost all the goddamn time.

Since I’m already talking about Sport, let’s use a sports metaphor to discuss this. Let’s imagine that somehow, through some fatal error in judgment on my part, I have found myself engaged in a game of one-on-one with John Wall. John Wall is stronger, faster, taller, and more skilled than I am at the game of basketball. He will undoubtedly win, if no measures are undertaken to make the matchup more even. Let’s extend this metaphor: the official refereeing this game is John Wall’s friend, and has bet a large sum of money on the outcome of this game, assuming that I will lose it. His interest is in making sure that John Wall wins, and if it becomes apparent that there is any contest, he will simply cease to enforce any rules against John Wall- not that any real enforcement would effect the estimable Mr. Wall anyways, since he can win against me without breaking the rules in the slightest. And, let’s deal me a final blow: Blue Jesus and his referee friend wrote the rulebook before the game, more or less ensuring that I would have no chance to win by creating a rule set so byzantine and so skewed in their favor that even a true competitor would have a difficult time competing equitably. Clearly, this is a rigged game.

Simply put, one cannot win a rigged game without altering the rules. What we need in this country is a change in the rule structure: our officiating is bad and rarely is it enforced evenly, our rule book is unimaginably complex and skewed in the favor of the stronger side, and any sort of handicapping to level the playing field is functionally non-existent. Do Americans need to learn how to lose better? Certainly. In terms of financial success, most of us will “lose” anyways, when compared to the richest Americans. That would be like comparing my basketball skills to John Wall’s. However, the cruel reality is that, in American life, we are all engaged in this kind of uneven contest, and the only way to improve the quality of life for the vast majority of our citizenry is to change the rules. As someone philosophically aligned with the idea of the OWS protests, I would offer this suggestion: don’t hate the players, hate the game.

1. charlieolvera posted this