Achievement

According to Richard Friedman, MD, our economic crisis [2008] spawned a crisis in the human psyche.  Dr. Friedman’s insight is the result of some anecdotal conversations he has had with his patients.  These patients, especially the males who depend in one way or another on the business of Wall Street, come to his psychiatric practice with disturbing anxieties about when the maelstrom (The Great Recession) would end and how they would recover their masters-of-the-universe (MOTU) status.  The most disturbing anxiety among them was feeling like a loser.  That’s the men.  The women, who also have achieved MOTU status, however, have apparently experienced none of the same deleterious psychological reactions.

Setting aside, for the moment, any gender issues that arise from Dr. Friedman’s discourse, let’s consider this as a general cultural issue.  A fundamental question in any culture (although often overlooked in America) asks: What is the ultimate measure of a person’s value or personal worth?  For Americans, the answer is success.  And the ultimate American metric of success is money.  This monetary success is open-ended, having no final stopping point and requiring never-ending achievement.  The failure to achieve equates with a failure to make any meaningful contribution to society at all.  The individual thus becomes literally worth-less.*   As the aphorism has it, those with the most toys at the end win, and those without the most are less than winners and are probably losers.

But then you ask, what about all the “dedicated” teachers, nurses and clergy?  “Dedicated” is the word our culture reserves for those who toil in noneconomic social institutions, locked out of the 4 foundations of American culture (achievement, individualism, universalism, and money fetishism) beyond America’s cultural ethos.  They are the dross, the necessary foils to the achievers.  They are good people all, especially because they provide moral comfort to the MOTUs.   These underlings’ roles are devalued in our culture relative to the ends and means of economic activity.  Their positions are ascribed as dedicated, because they have no otherwise logical, operative role in the success-as-money-as-achievement culture.  The word also keeps them in their places.

Speaking as one who has done his time in education, I have difficulty sympathizing with the anxiety-ridden MOTUs.  Dr. Friedman suggests that these MOTUs set themselves up for this misery by being lured by the casino-like atmosphere of Wall Street.  “For many the lure of investing is the thrill of uncertain reward.  Now that thrill is gone, replaced by anxiety and fear.”

Yep. Exactly.  I have the same feeling toward them as I do toward the suckers who walk into the Bellagio being thrilled by the possible uncertain reward, knowing absolutely that the house always wins in the long run.  And we don’t even own the house anymore.

*Notes on the 4 foundations of American culture taken from Messner and Rosenfeld.  Crime and the American Dream.