Winning Isn't Everything

poverty, wingnut, winning

I never really thought about it before, but historian must be a job with an unusually high risk of headsplosion. I mean, if I'm picking up on the obvious disregard and ignorance most Americans* have for history, I can only imagine how historians feel.

Dr. Tony Beam, of the Christian Post, whose doctorate is clearly not in history, offers us this terrible amusing example:

Do you remember the saying, “When the going gets tough the tough get going?” Or, how about, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” I think this one is my favorite, “Risk more than other think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.”

These are all fairly famous quotes on desire and determination to win. The spirit of America is the spirit of winning. Maybe Patton said it best to his troops in the movie that bears his name. “Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all the time. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.”

First of all, I'm fairly certain General Patton was not primarily an actor. He may, in fact, have been a general. As for actor Patton's little speech, I can only say, ahem, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and coming soon to a theatre near you, Afghanistan.

In American society, the cherished American value of winning has been under attack for years. People on the left think winning is somehow unfair. When you win that means someone else is going to lose. Committed leftists want to transform the world into a place where everyone wins and no one ever loses. They would change “When the going gets tough the tough get going” into “When the going gets tough the tough take a break.” They would transform “winning isn’t everything…it’s the only thing” into “winning isn’t anything…It’s a bad thing.”

"Winning" is not a value, cherished or otherwise. Frankly, the fact that winning might be seen as a value explains quite a bit about how the right regards and treats the poor, who are quite obviously losing. See, the poor aren't unfortunates we should help, they're failures who don't uphold our cherished value of winning. We shouldn't help them, we should spit on them. And then go buy another Mercedes.

Wow. That actually does explain everything.

*I say Americans only because I have no idea how knowledgable or aware of history average people in other countries are, having never lived in another country.