Loss of competition in the USA

The Hand-Holding, Irresponsible, Apathetic Society We Call America

         We as humans have lost our will to survive. Yes we wish to live but we do little to improve our species. We have stopped adapting. There is no point to competition anymore; look to the often-said phrase, “Everyone’s a winner” or “It’s not about winning” or “Nobody is better than anyone else”, all of these phrases have no place in our increasingly competitive world. The US is falling behind other countries in fields we used to excel and take pride in. Why do we even bother competing anymore when “It’s not about winning” and “Everyone’s a winner”? Should I take pride in conquering the competition when the competitors who lost are convinced they all won? Why even keep score when competing if “It’s not about winning”? We’ve lost our sense of pride in self-reliance, I don’t need a job because the government will give me money because I don’t want to find a job. We used to want to fulfill the American Dream of having a family, owning a home, and having a well-paying job that will end with your retirement that you worked so hard for. Nowadays we don’t want/need to be self-reliant, there’s always someone there to dig me out of this hole I dug myself into and probably will again. We don’t have the sense to plan or hope for a future anymore, it’s always what I want now, what I want my way, what feels okay. We’ve lost common sense, and with it, our will to compete. In the end it always will be the same, certain failure. How can we succeed when we don’t try to better ourselves against our rivals who grow ever more powerful? It’s not even like tying one arm behind your back anymore in this fight to succeed, it’s like cutting off both arms and waiting till they grow back. We know we are weak, but what do we do? We wait till someone else does something. But then, that competing person grows an edge, no competition close by to start with means in the end you won’t be very good when it counts. Americans no longer salute soldiers and support war efforts like we used to. It used to be everyone would pitch in and congratulate the soldier who just got home and fought the good fight. Now we have to beg for even meager contributions to help soldiers. People make it a passion and lifestyle cutting down our country when it’s weakest, taking the coward’s shot and becoming heroes.
         If you want a better world, fix peoples mistakes or get rid of the people. If there’s something a person is doing that is a mistake and they know it, and they know the right thing to do, either they do the right thing or they can leave. Stop giving excuses. It’s time to step up to the plate, swing the bat, and move on. We’ve turned compensating for a person’s own problems in work, school, and life into giving them an edge. If a child has a disorder where they don’t learn as well as others, work hard at letting them learn the best they can, don’t give them the answers but show them how to find their own. It’s like learning to walk, you don’t learn by people carrying you , as so many people (figuratively) do today. Quit giving shortcuts to people, you’re only hurting them in the end. In real life nobody is going to help them every step of the way, so stop pretending and start preparing.  Pretend all you want and you’ll never know the real world. You’re basically trying to describe your life with crayon drawings and the expect the person seeing them to know what you experienced exactly. You can’t describe heat to a small child so how do you prepare a person for reality by holding their hand every step of the way. Stop bending rules to fit the disturbances, if you aren’t trying to get better why should we pity you? Our help should be directed where it’s actually wanted and needed.
         Our apathy, hand-holding, dependent society isn’t going anywhere. “I don’t feel like competing” is a phrase too often used when competition is needed. Life doesn’t ask you if you want to compete for what you want and need, you compete or lose. You want a particular job? You have to earn it! Don’t complain when you haven’t outdone the competition, get up and keep competing till you win. America needs to get up and get going in our world. We need to become the best in everything, sports, academics, business, all without sacrificing freedom. Instead of comparing ourselves to averages, maybe we should try to equate ourselves to the best, keep working till we are the best, don’t pretend till we are, make it happen. America, get out of your self-obsessed, “it’s all about me”, “I can do whatever I want” slump.  The current generation is the like the worst of the last one, and that one was the worst of the one before it and so on. Sure we have advances, but who made them now? Not the United States. If we don’t improve soon don’t be surprised if we all are gone within 2 generations. Drop your self-entitlement, get some self-reliance. Outdo yourself, your rivals, and your superiors. Do better what the last generation sucked at. Do great at what the last generation did well. Get some good old-fashioned national pride. Other countries do better because they pride themselves in something, soon the US will only pride itself in what it had, not what it has. Remember the days of glory, create new ones. The last time America truly had a time to take pride was too far back for the current generation to remember. That competition I said we needed? We had it when we were having the space race. We had it in the old wars. We had it when we won independence from Britain. What do we have now? I’m not saying we don’t have good things, but what great things do we have that separate us from all else? America is using the old days as its crutch and the wisdom has been thrown away. Nobody talks about earning freedom anymore unless they’re talking for personal gain.
         What I wonder most is why we no longer celebrate the hometown heroes. The soldier who just got back, the scientist working for a cure to some illness affecting those around him and the world, the businessman who did great things for his community, the guy who graduated high school then college and went on to be somebody big, or the family man who loved his wife and children and worked hard to give them a good life? Nowadays our heroes are people who pretend to care, care only about themselves, or worse yet, care about nothing at all. We look at people who used to sing or dance or act, but now are on a road to self destruction, they don’t care about anyone, what makes them different from any other drugged up loser on the street. Nothing except we pay attention. Try looking for popular people who are good moral examples, I’ll bet you’ll find that most of them aren’t real, they’re either fiction, or based only on rumors and publicity stunts. And if people who do good things are really our heroes, why don’t we do good things too? People who don’t do good things say they’re rebels or revolutionists, people who do good are criticized for allegedly trying to steal the spotlight, show off, or copy someone else’s ideas or work.
[this is a work in progress, leave comments, thanx.]