Chapter 8: Mediocrity in USA and Europe

Why do the people of America put up with this huge waste, this grotesque pig of over twenty one million government employees getting a paycheck for being non-Producers? In a word: Mediocrity.

The bell curve is wide, and in America we have all types of people, some excellent, some it seems born to lose. The largest bunch of us live in the middle of the bell curve, about average at what we do and think. That’s just the way large populations behave. Garrison Keillor’s vision of Lake Wobegone, “where all the children are above average,” simply does not exist!

The great thing about human society is that there is a place for just about everyone. (I’m excluding criminals from this discussion.) If you excel at art or mathematics, there is a studio or university job waiting. If you have a mental problem and can handle only simple tasks, there is a factory job for you, with kind coworkers who will allow you to do your personal best without criticism. America has great character in that way.

The mediocrity I speak of is a wholesale slide to the left of the bell curve, as compared to twenty or fifty years ago. In so many ways this can be seen.

My children love to read, and I marvel at the pounds and pounds of books they bring home from the library every week. Sometimes they choose books written in the 1800’s, classics like Moby Dick. These books are written on a level that would challenge most adults today. Even the children’s books of C.S.Lewis are above the comprehension level of many high school kids.

In my family we had an old German chest with three deep drawers full of pictures and family records. The key was lost for years and years, but we found it one holiday when I was a teen. We spent hours flipping through old pictures, letters and documents from long ago, some dated in the 1800’s.

One of the letters I found was from a local pastor to my mother’s 1936 graduating class, in her high school annual. I previously showed you the letter to my Dad from the Secretary of the Navy. Now listen to this local pastor’s voice as you read his letter to my Mother.

Every time I read this letter my spirit moves and tears fill my eyes. The people of my mother’s graduating class of 1936 were the ones who defeated Hitler and Japan in World War II. They rebuilt Europe. They fought Communism to its defeat. They put several men on the Moon. They are being called out of retirement to help Generation X build the next Moon rockets. I understand now the solid ground on which they stood as they faced death in many arenas, and won.

Where has that spirit gone in America? When did it leave?

Fast forward to Vassar College’s 2005 commencement address, delivered by Tom Hanks, well respected and talented actor, who incidentally played a World War II soldier in a movie. Here’s an excerpt as he implores the graduates to ‘help’ in various ways:

“Life outside of college is just like life in it: one nutty thing after another, some of them horrible, but all interspersed with enough beauty and goodness to keep you going. That’s your job, to keep going. Your duty is to help - without ceasing. The art you create can glorify it. The science you pursue can prove its value. The law you practice can pass on its benefits. The faith you embrace will make it the earthly manifestation of your God.”

See the difference?

Pastor Owens encourages the “largest service possible to your capacity.” Tom Hanks encourages them “to keep going.”

Pastor Owens sees truth as the manifestation of God, not your god, but the God. Tom Hanks sees whatever faith you embrace making life the earthly manifestation of whatever God you choose.

Pastor Owens urges us to ceaselessly pursue honor, virtue, courage and faith. Tom Hanks urges us to ceaselessly ‘help’.

Pastor Owens tells us to seek and find truth. Tom Hanks does not mention truth in his entire address. He and his society today are afraid of truth because it seems to them closed minded and threatening.

Pastor Owens tells his graduates to find truth, act on it honorably, rise to the world’s challenge that demands their personal best. Tom Hanks tells his graduates in another part of this address to “help plant trees.”

Picture Pastor Owens simply reading his letter to the Vassar graduates of 2005. Blank stares. Yawns. They have no context in which to place or understand his points. The bell curve has slid so far to the left that Pastor Owens may as well be from Mars, speaking Martian, three fingers per hand, sucker cups and all.

Pity a country where shallow actors are the source of inspiration for our college graduates!

What we have here is not just a language problem, as if a course from “hooked on the classics” could help our rap generation. We have a spiritual and intellectual deficit, one that produces people with the same pulse rate as Jefferson, but mediocre capabilities less than his stable boy that would embarrass our forbears.

This mediocrity is pervasive, from the counter clerk who cannot count change (even when the register displays exactly what change to give), to the corporate financial officer cooking the books of a publicly traded company, thinking, “no one will ever notice that 100 mil.”

I work with engineers in my business and it’s amazing how many of them cannot solve a problem unless it happens to fall neatly into their narrow realm of expertise. There are programmers who write programs in one computer language, but refuse to work with another similar language, even though all the principles are the same. Engineers from India, never having been to America, write English better than Americans. And our people are Producers!

How many examples should I provide? Tech support by phone, the poor quality of computer software products, politically correct standardized testing, automotive service, biased journalism; all these things and more have been dumbed down to the point of uselessness. Insert your own list here...