The marathon runner crossing the finish line is the most vivid illustration of someone who has striven. After months and months of training and preparation, the runner puts the last effort of a 26.2 mile, grueling race behind (him) and thrusts his body across the line, sometimes collapsing, having given his last ounce of energy to the effort. He has striven to accomplish something that even he may not have believed to be possible those months ago. The medal on a ribbon which is placed around his neck to signal that he has completed the 26.2 is symbolic. The real acknowledgement is within himself.
I heard Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski on the Morning Joe Show yesterday talking about American greatness, and he used the word striven in the context of the effort America has demonstrated in its attempt to be a leader among nations. His optimism for America’s ability to return to a position of international greatness was remarkable and refreshing in the midst of great negativity by pundits of all stripes.
The question is, does strife to regain greatness amount to a sufficient entity to assure that greatness? Can an individual or a nation “assure” its greatness simply because it strives for it? Obviously, it takes more than individual effort. The quality of greatness must be recognized by others before the awarding of greatness can be valid. It is like the proverbial philosophical question of whether the sound of a falling tree in the midst of a deserted forest can said to have existence. Does not the translation of the airwaves emitted by the crashing tree have to excite the eardrums of a living being in order to be valid?
Our nation’s declaration of greatness can fall on deaf ears and can be invalidated by perceptions of less than greatness by others.
But the optimism expressed by Dr. Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Carter, is a powerful testimony which deserves acknowledgement. It is too easy to discount the greatness of America by recounting the errors we as a country have made and ignoring the accomplishments which overshadow them. In this age of disparagement of greatness and the taking of pleasure in trashing good done by an individual or an accumulation of individuals, it is too simple a task to denigrate their strife to do good.
That is not to be Pollyanna about this nation’s recent history. There are many things to diminish the record of goodness of this country, the Iraq war not being the least by far. Bad choices and boundary crossings by American citizens and the nation as a whole are too easy to recognize to be able to ignore them. But the heart of America is good and the intention of the American people is to do good. We have not always demonstrated that through the leaders we have chosen and the policies we have promoted. But, especially in the post-9/11 world in which our confidence was shaken and our grief was evident, those leaders and policies have been as much a demonstration of post-traumatic stress as anything else. We have been attuned to detect such a phenomenon in military personnel returning from war or family members rebounding from a disaster. But we are slow to recognize the PTSD in our nation and the ways in which it has affected us. Some continue to demonstrate that disorder, including some who would be leaders of our nation in all three branches of our government.
But Dr. Brzezinski is correct: this country has striven to be great and magnanimous and will continue to do so. Like those who suffer with PTSD, it may take years for us to discover how to live that out in legitimate and sincere ways. And, in the right moment, it will take world opinion, not our own declarations, to establish that the United States is again a great nation. In the meantime, it is required of us to recognize our national humility and be willing to receive the assistance needed to grow and heal. We begin with the recognition of, and embracing of, our soul. That calls for the demonstration of reality, not fantasy. As we are about to identify the leadership who will lead us into the next years of our striving for goodness and greatness, that demonstration is vital and urgent.
Photo Credit: runner
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Missy, your response to “Striven” is a welcome commentary. You have captured a point which is exceedingly important. “The American Dream” is too often characterized as material success, and its attainment is too often blocked by existential realities over which one has little or no control. I have been intrigued by the recently-touted idea, for instance, that the dream of home ownership is an inflated fantasy for most people. Despite the recent era of cheap mortgages which went south too soon, inflated and sometimes illegal/immoral lending practices to help one achieve home ownership and advertising which promotes real estate purchase, it has been a disaster for many, many people. Of late there has been a lot of talk about the idea that increasingly it appears that rental rather than ownership is the way Americans can exist safely and comfortably in the emerging economic age. (Much like Europe and other parts of the world where the great bulk of people live in apartments and rental property. ) Is that not a changing paradigm for “The American Dream?” Your comment helps me go there in terms of revisiting the question. Thanks.
I was reading a column in my “Free Inquiry” magazine. (Which is not free, you have to join and pay for it) Anyway, Prof. Steven Doloff (Social Sciences & Media Studies Prof. at Pratt) wrote this fabulous column called “Unreasonable Optimism”. In which he states that America’s ungrounded and unfounded optimism will at some point put us at a great disadvantage in a world where more realistic thinking societies reside (Europe, Asia, Australia and even Russia?) These societies score much higher on social reality scales and are socially very realistic in their goals regarding what should be expected out of life in general.
He tells this story of how the Marines train soldiers to look for “the door”. The door is the idea that no matter how horrible and unfair your situation, if you are strong enough and determined enough to find “the door” you can walk away. Everything will be OK. You have control. Boy, that sounds great on paper….But does “the door” really exist in most situations? We are actively teaching our kids this daily in our schools, no one loses, until someone eventually does, and then we give them all a medal anyway. Is that really healthy?
He also talks about the NASA Mercury program of the 1960’s. This program coined the American phrase “the right stuff”. The right stuff is defined as ‘those with steely confidence and initiative will trump circumstantial disadvantage. ‘
He says this faulty reasoning is persistent today at a far greater rate of disadvantage than it has in prior American History. He reasons that due to the fact we are a nation of immigrant explorers; we may indeed have a “right stuff” faulty DNA blip.
In fact, things like racism, ageism, disability, bigotry in various forms, and poverty are overcome at stingingly low rates.
The whole idea of the ‘self-made man’ is a fallacy along with the lazy deficient ‘born loser’.
“If economic socialism remains an anathema in American public discourse today—it is because our citizens just can’t grasp how personal self-affirmation can be achieved through federal dispensation. Similarly, if labor union membership is at a record low, it’s probably because American workers, deep down, still believe that individual gumption and resourcefulness will get them what they need—or else they do not deserve it.” If you are not a ‘Rocky’ you just don’t deserve to fight.
‘Americans have been exploited since the mid-nineteenth century by a massive for profit scheme. They have been mass marketed and hypnotized by ‘positive thinking’ that doesn’t work. Today despite the hard-nosed economic realists piping in the media and genuine suffering caused by the recession, Americas remain awash in the monetized optimism business. Ex. Self-help Oprah, alternative medicine Deepak Chopra, motivational speaker Tony Robbins. If you believe: you can diet, heal, profit, succeed, and climb the highest mountain, whatever.’ Where is that 80’s valley girl in her Cali Twang screaming “HELLO?”
Americans will not smell the coffee: they will AGAIN recklessly invest in pie-in-the-sky IPO’s that pop like Bazooka. Take out mortgages they can’t pay. Invest in their brother’s networking startup and tell their kids they can win a gold medal in the 2014 Olympics.
Perhaps true liberty is the liberty to act like a fool and to be free to be the fool.
“For better or for worse, there is clearly some fundamental expression of American character in this disposition of perennial, reckless optimism. NOT SURE? Answer me this: Do you or don’t you, in your gut, expect America to come out of this recession sooner rather than later and (eventually) get to Mars? I rest my case.”
Is America even cognitively able to recognize a “striven” leader? He may be sitting in the White House right now…