ANOTHER ASININE PIECE OF MODERN “WISDOM”

2/14/10

My wife and I caught a large portion of the Olympic opening ceremonies on Friday night, after returning from our daughter’s Naperville North basketball banquet. Since we are officially a society that substitutes “gee whiz” special effects for cultural achievement and deep, or any, thought, I am sure that the opening ceremonies were deemed by most a dazzling success. Even I’ll admit, if somewhat begrudgingly so, that some of the show was quite breathtaking.

One thing that especially struck me about the opening ceremonies had nothing to do with the electronic display of computer generated wonder. After most of the techno-excitement had died down, we were subjected, as we all usually are, to speeches by a couple people who simply don’t know when to quit. Like most speeches, homilies, Masses, ceremonies, services, etc., these speeches were about 40% too long. However, one wonders if, even had the speakers shown the courtesy to cut it off at after a decent length of time, these particular speeches would have been tolerable. One thinks not. One especially idiotic comment one of the speakers made, though, was a repeat of one of those especially grating, and patently false, admonitions that seems to have become holy writ simply by means of endless, mindless repetition. This particular piece of drivel was the observation that a good Olympic athlete “never gives up.” As is always the case when that comment was made, the crowd went crazy.

Hmm…Never give up? The utter inanity of that advice can be exposed from a number of angles in a number of facets of life.

Suppose that the Japanese and the Germans, in World War II, had followed that tired old chestnut. How many people would have had to die to bring that conflict to a close? Moving backward in history, what if the South had not given up, as many, including, reportedly, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, were counseling in the final days of the war, but instead had pursued guerilla action in the hills? What would have become of our country? Fortunately, Robert E. Lee had the good sense not to follow the gormless “never give up” fluff.

In modern politics, suppose that every candidate found it a badge of pusillanimousness to give up. No one would ever drop out of the presidential nominating contests; the primaries would remain crowded with dead to the world, hopeless candidates. Those who consider it especially virtuous to “never give up” would, even in the general elections, demand endless recounts, sealing our government and political system in the amber of faux and mindless perseverance forever. (Hmm…perhaps never giving up isn’t such a bad idea after all.)

In business, products that no one wants to buy would stay on the shelves forever; after all, we are never supposed to give up, right? New Coke, Modern Coke, or whatever that marketing abomination was would still be there, sitting on the shelves, and the old, and current, formula, of Coke would be gone forever. Whenever a company came into play, none of the bidders would ever go away. The attention of the people in charge of both the pursued and the pursuers would never get to focus on running their businesses again; court fights, proxy fights, demonstrations, etc. would be the order of the day. Never give up, right?

When I was a much younger man, I was a huge fan of boxing, an enthusiasm I picked up from my dad, who was the most knowledgeable boxing observer I have ever known. What if every boxer somehow found it less than manly to give up? What would we have? A lot of dead young men. Remember, Rocky was only a movie. If it were reality, the first fight with Creed would have been stopped in the third round, or Rocky Balboa would have died in the fourth or fifth.

The reader gets my point. “Never give up” is one of those moronic expressions, like “Be optimistic” that we just accept without thinking. If one challenges such vacuous expressions, one is accused of all manner of nefarious motives and mindsets, as are most people who actually stop to think nowadays. But the reality, indeed the necessity, is that we give up when the benefits of continuing are overwhelmed by the costs of doing so. We give up when it is pointless, and hopeless, to continue. To do otherwise is thoughtless, dangerous, and potentially fatal.