To Dare Greatly
- January 30, 2003
- 2 comments
I found this quote from Teddy Roosevelt and thought it was very relevant and inspiring.
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
I think this is very relevant right now, not only because of the Left’s CONSTANT nagging of EVERYTHING Bush does, but also to the way our society has become in general. Debate now boils down to ripping apart the other’s ideas, but offering no substantial alternatives. Nothing gets accomplished that way.
My generation is apathetic, in part, because if we stick our head up, it gets bashed. Every person who sticks their neck out one way or another these days, gets hammered by naysayers, mudslingers, whiners, jealous, morally-bankrupt post-modernists who have no standard of right and wrong. They offer no viable options… they just tear down anything they haven’t thought up. It’s a cancer on our society. No one likes to be publicly whipped like that, so no one takes the initiative anymore.
It starts early in our lives in school. You’ve got to be part of some group or you’re nobody. You’re ridiculed and abandoned by your peers. When you get older, pressures like drugs and sex are constantly on you. If you haven’t tried a drug or had sex then you’re looked on as sub-human. Parents put pressure on their kids to perform well… to make them proud. That or the parents are completely absent from a kids life. They provide no sanctuary, no escape and comfort from a cruel world. And we wonder why kids are so angry and depressed these days?
Later in life, you learn in college that truth is subjective. All cultures are the same. There is no good and evil. Post-modernist, destructionist views are hammered into you. If you try to go against it, you’re labeled and scorned. So you begin to accept that there is nothing truly good in the world; nothing worth fighting for or against, other than those who still have a sense of right and wrong (mainly religious people, but even they can be seriously screwed up).
When you graduate, you’re supposed to find a lucrative job and make lots of money. Buy nice things and live in a huge home in a nice neighborhood. You’re measured by what you own, what you do, how you perform and look rather than who you are. Everyone is constantly striving to climb that ladder, keep up with the Joneses, all the while being taxed out the wazoo by big government. We’re not all blessed with the same talents and gifts or given the same opportunities to achieve, so how can we all try to measure ourselves by what the other person is doing? If we do that, we’ll NEVER feel like we’ve arrived. And we wonder why anxiety and depression are becoming major problems in America?
And those in power in our country aren’t any better. You’ve got people (in both parties) who bend to the will of those with money or power. You have a bunch of monkeys scratching each other’s backs. No one steps “in the arena” as Teddy Roosevelt put it. And if someone comes in to try to shake up the establishment, God help them. This is one reason I like Bush. He most definitely isn’t the best public speaker, but he’s real. He’s human. He’s flawed, like all of us. But he sticks his neck out and pushes towards goals. For that alone, he should be treated with respect, even if you don’t agree with his views. I don’t agree with everything he’s done, but I still respect the man.
I hope that many more rise up to meet the challenges of this world. People who will not be deterred by the negative cancer in our society, but will push for open, constructive debate on important issues. People who will lead and get things done, not tear down and procrastinate.
bhaskar
Well said.