So You Think You Can...

My favorite TV show is back on... So You Think You Can Dance. It's not that I'm a fan of "The Dance". But I do love the freak show... the schadenfreude. It's much better than American Idol even. At first, it was jaw dropping -- amazing. These obviously talentless people would audition, and when told they had no talent would blow a fuse! They go ballistic. Have a conniption. Or melt down. Cuss and give the finger to the camera. How DARE anyone tell ME that I can't dance (sing, etc)! This first show of the season there were two such delusionals. The first, a girl who was chubby, awkward, and couldn't dance to save her life. I seem to recall that she said she was a dance instructor. When she left she was crying on the phone to someone about how the people here were so mean. Next up was Sex, as he calls himself. Motto: "I AM the best." Somehow saying it makes it true. Nigel, the producer and head judge straight out told him and his whacko mother that he's delusional.

Where did all these nutters come from? I have a theory. For some time now we've been told about the supreme importance of self-esteem. Teachers embraced this philosophy whole-heartedly. All the flower needs is a little water and it'll blossom. So take your typical ugly, awkward, and not-too-bright kid and tell him how utterly swell she is. And of course, the further behind they are, the dumber, the uglier, the more awkward... why, of course they get extra heap'n helpings of esteem. Pile it on! Extra strokes for Harold! You know Harold. Yes, that, Harold. Makes perfect sense if you've bought into the concept. Result? A now young adult who has been fed a steady diet of "You are so special" for years suddenly meets reality. That is, others who for some reason (they're just plain mean! They're jealous!) don't agree to blow sunshine up Miss I. M. Special's ass.

I've been studying this for some years now. I first took note of it when Kipland Kinkel killed fellow students in 1998. The scenario has played out many times. Anger at fellow students who don't see him as special. His teachers tells him he's special. His parents tell him he's special. Damn those mean students! How dare they not validate his specialness! Why, they deserve what they get!

What is the origin of this madness? I don't know for sure but one connection is fairly obvious -- a fundamental, and intentional, misinterpretation of the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." This declaration of course meant that the new country did not recognize different classes of people endowed with different rights -- i.e. commoners and nobility or a caste system. All people were equal before the state. Equal rights. The left has morphed this statement of political egalitarianism into one of physical egalitarianism. There actually are people who refuse to admit that everyone is NOT born with the same talents, intelligence, looks, skills, strength, etc. It would be Politically Incorrect to do so. We are all created equal, but somewhere along the line you just lost your sense of equality so let's give you some extra strokes. Good idea. Well, at least it makes for interesting television.