Pathetic Pedestals
There’s a funny phenomenon in this country called failing forward. It’s also called failing up.
It’s a simple concept: when one makes a mistake, they actually have the opportunity to advance as a result of that error.
This is all fine and good in business and corporations where learning from mistakes is productive; the theory being that everything is a teachable moment.
This works in families, too, where our children, for example, won’t be vilified for life for infractions from which they learn where they went wrong, and then triumph by doing even better next time.
That’s what failing forward is supposed to be: doing better the next time. Improving. Gaining a better perspective. Being rewarded by the positive distinctions made after a bad performance.
But the definition of failing forward in other segments of our society isn’t so beneficial. In the political world, in particular, bad people and their failures are often granted a phoenix chance, but when they rise from the ashes, their toxicity increases.
And, they are rewarded for it with book deals, a guaranteed position in the pantheon of punditry, and, usually, a second go at their ambitions.
Why?
Why are villains now in more demand than good guys?
Because failure to our psyches is way more real than winning due to our hard-wired ability to see the bad over the good. Add to that our ability to relate to those people that are just being…well, people.
But wouldn’t all this beg the question, that if more people simply did right by others, shared their successes, and when they failed were humble enough to step away, that we would advance aside from this tendency to put the very worst behaviors on pedestals?
Would it be possible for our society to churn out more heroes than bad guys if we tried to see and do more good?
Sure, it’s possible. Maybe it starts at home and in our families. It definitely doesn’t start in the infotainment complex, and certainly not in politics. And it definitely does not start, not for a long time, and maybe not ever in the United States Senate.
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Photo by Joshua Golde on Unsplash
