Respect yourself -- really

A long, long time ago, a psychologist named Nathaniel Branden came up with a theory of self-esteem. He said that every human being required a sense of self-esteem -- simply a feeling of self-worth -- to function productively and constructively.

This has been picked up and popularized by the culture, including sociologists and other psychologists, so that most of us pretty well understand the drill:  you've got to believe you have something to give before you can give anything. Otherwise, you kinda hate yourself and others and almost involuntarily do things that seem calculated to destroy yourself and others. You even distrust and despise people who like you, because you can't understand why they would.

Nathaniel Branden also noted that we can acquire a sense of self-esteem in only one way:  by proving to ourselves that we can do something right. That is, you succeed at what you set out to do, no matter how big or small a task it is. Your three-year-old builds a house of blocks -- praise him for it and he'll gain some sense of self-esteem. You get that challenging job -- you should be congratulated by yourself and others for the salary that goes with it.

However, leave it to the blockheaded do-gooders.... They've taken the positive and very useful concept of self-esteem and short-circuited it. In the silly-ass liberal conventions of public education, for example, the second-grade soccer team is given a trophy even if they lose every game of the season. Yet the fact remains -- they sucked. They lost every game in the season. And the winners? Well, they get trophies, too, though they probably really don't need them as badly as the losers do.

This approach teaches a couple of interesting lessons.  One, why work? You'll get the benefits even without it. Two, why work? Even if you win, you don't gain anything more from it. Three, and the worst, is the disconnect between real, honest achievement and the pat on the back.

Educators seem to think that praising someone for nothing is equal to praising somone for something. It isn't.

Human beings aren't stupid. We can see if we screwed something up. To be praised for failure just makes you neurotic -- gives you a world-view that isn't based upon reality. In short, it makes you irrational, a bumbling idiot likely to believe anything that props up your shaky sense of self-esteem. You need to hear the lies that make you feel good. You become an Obama supporter.

It's kind of like the Comrade saying he's going to win back the conservatives, then throwing them a pretty pathetic sop of the promise of oil exploration on the East Coast. See, he thinks that's a pat on the back to the right, and they'll hop right on his bandwagon, happy to bask in the glory of the light he sheds. However, the right, being fatally realistic, pretty much sees through it.

One of the first things the Comrade did when he took office was to cancel a number of energy production contracts that were more than just exploratory. These babies had already gone through the lengthy and very expensive Impact Statement process and were ready to go.

The Comrade canceled them. Canceled them. Canceled them. Trying to prove to the tree-huggers that he was on their side.

Now the Comrade wants people to believe that, yeah, well, big magnanimous spirit that he is, he'll let the energy industry start all over again in some new territory.... If only they'll support his crap-n-tax bullshit legislation to destroy the USA.

You see, the Comrade is the victim of all this silly, artificial self-esteem business. He's so damn sure he's so wonderful that all he has to smile at someone and they'll be all aglow and kowtowing before him. He's got so much to give, after all.

Truth is, the Comrade's self-esteem is based on praise, not production.

In the real world, production is the only thing that counts.

So, basically, the Comrade is just insulting a lot of people who know a lot more than he does, and alienating them even further.

Worse, the Comrade just doesn't get it. Hey, you toss someone a bone, they're supposed to toss something back. Only what he's thrown out is so miniscule and insignificant, it's hardly worth acknowledging. Even if it comes from the "Anointed One."

Polls show that the dems have gotten more enthusiastic about socialism recently. Good for them. In the meanwhile, conservatives are increasingly bitter towards this administration, and the dems have lost the independent vote as well.

The Comrade and the merry marxists are a curiously isolated little crew, like a handful of people in a leaky little lifeboat adrift on the great big sea of the real world. They cling together, hold hands, sing praises to each other. Nobody else agrees with their policies or supports them, so they close ranks even tighter and praise each other even more strenuously -- a note of terrified hysteria sneaking into their tone every now and then. They support each other's vision of being victimized underdogs who "deserve a fair deal," even though most of them are millionaires and have always been in a privileged situation. Doesn't this tell you something? These are not people who can see reality, let alone deal with it effectively.

However, as long as they gain the praise of each other, their self-esteem (or neuroses) remains intact, and they refuse to learn anything.

Thank heavens we'll be rid of many of them come November.