I found the TED Talk video we watched today, relating tragedy to failure and success very intriguing. I find it very fascinating and extremely true that we as a society place more credence in our failures and mistakes than we do in our achievements. However, like the speaker said, no individual can be completely successful at everything, and success is interpreted differently by each person. This also means that failure at something does not equate to total failure, nor does it make us "losers". Since our society tries so desperately to emulate an impossible idea of a meritocracy, we tend to assume that those who don't do certain things are failures and thus end up at the bottom and those who do take advantage of certain things are successful and thus end up at the bottom. But, like stated in the video, there are too many random factors that affect each individual differently for us to make these assumptions. No two men are born with the same opportunities and/or abilities, and there are far too many aspects in life that we as individuals can't control. Therefore it is unfair and unrealistic for us to believe in a society of true equality because no one is equal. I also found the speaker's comments on what our true fear is, judgement and ridicule, when we don't necessarily meet our own definitions of success. I agree, I think it is true that we fear judgement and ridicule more than we fear actual failure. Below is a list of some of the main ideas I got from the video.
- Our lives tend to depend on a threatening reality
- We place more define our life's purpose and success on our achievements and on the bad things that can happen to us as opposed to the good things
- This makes us all very selfish, it makes us "snobbish"
- Material goods equals rewarding feelings not necessarily greed
- We have very high expectations for everyone; no hierarchy
- Envy is a dominant emotion; especially in a society of equality
- Envy correlates with relation
- Failure seems worse because we believe everything is possible for everyone when it's not
- Loser vs. Unfortunate
- We have an unrealistic idea of control over ourselves
- Too many random factors for a Meritocracy to be possible
- No two men are given the same opportunities
- Achievements are not equivalent to value
- We don't fear actual failure, we fear ridicule and judgement
- We let our mistakes define us as opposed to embracing the lessons we learn from them
- Tragedy does not equal loss yet we view tragedy as comedic when it's really not
- Human worship vs. Transcendent worship; nature is an escape from an overwhelmingly human world
- Success vs. failure
- You can strive for success in every aspect of life, but can never achieve success in everything
- Every person's idea of success is totally different
- Failure in one aspect of life does not equate to complete failure and does not render one incapable of success
- Emphasis on "justice" yet we have no idea of justice because we do not know all the random factors that have affected others
- Balance of tough but gentle; strong competitiveness can encourage more hard work and "success", but it can also inspire an attitude of "it's not worth it" and laziness