New Threats to Freedom - The Freedom to Fail

The loss of the freedom to fail is a true American tragedy. Today's young adults grew up in the era of positivity and self-esteem, which predictably turned out a self-centered generation convinced of its entitlement to academic success, to employment, to financial stability, and to other things prior generations knew came only with hard work. Members of this generation seem to be uniformly convinced - all eighty-five million of them - that they are special. But the real question is this: what does special mean if everyone qualifies?

Without failure, success becomes meaningless. Motivation to excel evaporates. This is basic introductory psychology: if we reward a behavior, we incentivize more of it.  If we reward mediocre work, then we should expect more mediocre work.  These conditions encourage not a race to the top, but a regression toward the mean.  Further, if even a lack of effort will be declared just as successful as outstanding effort, there is no incentive to push harder to achieve difficult goals. When excellence is no longer rewarded by recognition, true accomplishment vanishes.

Also, when failure is uncommon, the healthy fear of failure which motivates people to be diligent disappears, replaced by an unhealthy, paralyzing anxiety. Failure takes on a disproportionate degree of importance. This is why we have parents lined up to protest their children's grades and why teachers "socially promote" unsuccessful students.  This is, at least in part, why there are high school graduates in this country who cannot read.  I ask you, can we call their education a success?  We have decided failure is an unacceptable insult to a person's self-esteem, but maybe rewarding false success is the real insult, because it implies the person is incapable of real success.

When the unhealthy fear of failure reigns, to fail (or worse, to be a failure) becomes unthinkable.  This leads to inertia and paralysis.  It stifles risk-taking, innovation, and creativity.  People who are afraid to fail are defeated already because they become afraid to try. 

The reason this is a tragedy for America is obvious.  Innovation and creativity are what have made this country great.  If we become afraid to take risks, we limit our capacity to succeed and lead the world in discovery and innovation.  As the story goes, Thomas Edison failed thousands of times in his creation of the light bulb before he finally arrived at success.  While this may be an urban legend, the point itself is valid: those who give up because they are afraid to fail are guaranteed never to succeed. 

Failure is not defeat unless it results in surrender, and it is almost always a stepping stone on the path to success.  The truly great achievers of the past knew this, but it's a wisdom we have lost.  We need the freedom to fail so we can recover the freedom to try and to excel.  Anything less puts the American dream and its ideals in jeopardy.

Note: This post is an entry for a short essay scholarship contest.  The essay is in response to this video, which carries over themes from the book New Threats to Freedom, edited by Adam Bellow (available for purchase on Amazon and at other major booksellers).