Rights v Abilities

I've witnessed a growing confusion in the land. I think it started in the 60s. A great leveling, this in the name of "equality" and "democracy" but spilling into areas where equality is not the proper measure. All brain surgeons are not created equal -- in fact, half the doctors in the land graduated in the bottom half of their classes. So give me a top half doc, the higher the better, thank you very much.

Opinions are opinions but some are more valuable than others -- some come from folks who actually know what they are talking about. Today, this is called "elitism." As if knowing a subject because you have studied it does not matter. It is harder to get away with leveling in the sciences than in the humanities -- it's hard to pretend you can solve a differential equation! so most of the bad opinions in the land are found in the latter.

There's a great leveling in the land and a confusion of popularity with actual skill and talent. (Sometimes they embrace, sometimes not.)

Never have opinions been so accessible and widespread and never have they actually mattered less because, in fact, never have folks been more powerless. I forget if this is Orwell or Huxley or both, but it is damn scary.

Let's quit giving children medals for trying. Let's give them a pat on the back but not a medal. Let's save the medals for winners. Let's teach kids that losing, too, exists. Let's teach kids that sometimes you meet someone who actually is better at something than you are. And this is okay. But it doesn't get the medal. If you want the medal, you have to win at something.