When I'm at the beach, I spend a good bit of my time reading, wandering, and thinking. Yesterday my reading followed a thread about legendary warriors. By that I do not mean superheroes, but actual humans who have lived extraordinary lives. A lot of people have extraordinary moments, where the stars align and lightning strikes in their lives. The giants about whom I read were/are lightning bringers. They are people whose determination, force of personality, intelligence, and courage persist over a lifetime. It's in their DNA.
As I synthesized these stories it occurred to me that the world is really divided up into two groups. A large group of 'Admin oriented' people and a much smaller group of 'Performance oriented' people. The distribution is nowhere close to even. It's probably about 85% to 15% if that.
The Admins need the structures around them to be fair, equitable, safe, compassionate, and kind to be able to function. They spend their energy attempting to build these protective bubbles because they lack the ganas (desire/willpower) to succeed in a chaotic world. They focus on making rounded edges instead of developing the grit to power through the scrapes and bruises or the intelligence to avoid them. Regrettably, this lack of toughness is passed along to their kids and imposed upon the institutions that they occupy. A simple example of this is the transformation of elementary school PE programs. In an effort to protect the feelings of Admin children, most competition has been removed. There are no games only activities. No score is kept and the focus is on gameplay and technique rather than scorekeeping and winning. Admins prefer this because it extends the protective emotional bubble around their children. Admins seek to be protected rather than developing the skills to protect themselves. They would be terrible animals because nature doesn't adapt to creatures, creatures must adapt to nature and in this they would fail. Miserably.
You know the Performance oriented people immediately. They survey the situation, assess their options, and move forward with a purpose. They do not take stupid risks, but understand that risk is a part of life and that to succeed in a chaotic world one must develop the skills and fortitude necessary to navigate it. They understand that the world can be both unfair and unjust and they succeed in spite of the unfairness and lack of justice. They teach their kids to be useful, independent, skilled, and strong. These are NOT kids who will enter young adulthood unprepared. They will have been given responsibility early and held accountable for it. If knocked down, they will get back up and continue pressing forward. Quitting is anathema to performance oriented people. They will endure whatever suck is necessary to reach their objectives. They are the ones finding the $20 bills on the ground because they are actually outdoors doing things and not sitting on their asses simulating life on a video screen. Performance oriented people would make amazing animals because they would adapt quickly and effectively to the changes in the world around them. They would grow the fangs and claws and tough hides necessary to survive. They are the ones whom the Admins seek to control through rules and regulations because their success is somehow unfair or based upon privilege and not hard work. And despite the roadblocks that are placed before them by the low functioning Admins, the Performers do what they do and succeed anyway -- driving the Admins further into self-medication and bureaucratic frenzy.
I don't know how this will play out. In public schools, the Admins have won. The Performance oriented kids are restrained, contained, and put on behavior plans. They are taught sanitized curricula with no controversy or sharp edges -- unlike the world that they see around them. However, this disconnect is not lost on them and that gives me hope.
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