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I posted the following to Facebook last night and meant to post to LJ, forgetting it was during one of LJ's scheduled maintenance outages. Just as pertinent a day later, though.
Just watched, to my regret, a Fox News segment a friend linked -- shouty, chatty, opinionated and everything else I don't like about most cable news -- in which the anchors were commentating about how Mr. Rogers had a pernicious effect on a couple generations of people by telling kids that they're special just for being them. The commentators' take was that this created a couple generations of entitlement, and that he should've been saying, "You aren't special, no one owes you anything, get out and make something of yourself," etc. etc.
Well.
I'm no lover of the culture of entitlement. But to try to say that, for example, college students demanding stellar grades for subpar performance is Mr. Rogers' fault -- worse, that telling small children that they are *worthwhile* is a *BAD* thing -- that's just plain over the top. But it fits in with this growing attitude that takes snarly offense at any message that isn't a Randian, hyper-individualistic "your-worth-is-the-sum-of-what-you've-earned-and-attained" screed.
The ironic thing: A lot of people who buy into this attitude are conservatives, and a fair amount likely identify as Christians. And what's one thing that Christianity teaches? That all people *are* special, or at least worthwhile, as we bear the image of God. That God apparently considers humanity as a whole worthwhile -- hence, Creation; and, more to the point, hence the Cross.
Of which Fred Rogers, as an ordained Presbyterian minister, was no doubt aware.
So yeah -- people shouldn't expect the world to give them handouts. People should get off the couch and get to work. People shouldn't expect something for nothing.
But that doesn't alter the truth of the words attributed to John in the New Testament: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us ..."
Nor does it alter the truth of the gentle words of Fred Rogers:
You *are* special. Just for being you.
Words: Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead
Sounds & Images: More a Legend Than a Band by The Flatlanders
State O'Mind: Baffled
Just watched, to my regret, a Fox News segment a friend linked -- shouty, chatty, opinionated and everything else I don't like about most cable news -- in which the anchors were commentating about how Mr. Rogers had a pernicious effect on a couple generations of people by telling kids that they're special just for being them. The commentators' take was that this created a couple generations of entitlement, and that he should've been saying, "You aren't special, no one owes you anything, get out and make something of yourself," etc. etc.
Well.
I'm no lover of the culture of entitlement. But to try to say that, for example, college students demanding stellar grades for subpar performance is Mr. Rogers' fault -- worse, that telling small children that they are *worthwhile* is a *BAD* thing -- that's just plain over the top. But it fits in with this growing attitude that takes snarly offense at any message that isn't a Randian, hyper-individualistic "your-worth-is-the-sum-of-what-you've-earned-and-attained" screed.
The ironic thing: A lot of people who buy into this attitude are conservatives, and a fair amount likely identify as Christians. And what's one thing that Christianity teaches? That all people *are* special, or at least worthwhile, as we bear the image of God. That God apparently considers humanity as a whole worthwhile -- hence, Creation; and, more to the point, hence the Cross.
Of which Fred Rogers, as an ordained Presbyterian minister, was no doubt aware.
So yeah -- people shouldn't expect the world to give them handouts. People should get off the couch and get to work. People shouldn't expect something for nothing.
But that doesn't alter the truth of the words attributed to John in the New Testament: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us ..."
Nor does it alter the truth of the gentle words of Fred Rogers:
You *are* special. Just for being you.
Words: Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead
Sounds & Images: More a Legend Than a Band by The Flatlanders
State O'Mind: Baffled
