Talk about Trump and Trophies...

What I wanted to do with this post is discuss a cultural touchstone of division and conflict. One that gets a lot of attention. Participation trophies and awards. From auto ads to op-eds to memes, their destructive force is everywhere...

Participation Trophies are the bane of the existence for anyone that “really” loves America. This is one of those odd issues where polar opposites can attract similar opinions. I’m still going to talk about it but, I feel like I have to add something that I think will make sense.

I don't watch or have HBO so what I get is YouTube. I admit I am a fan of BIll Maher. He and I agree on a lot of things but my tweet below expresses my sentiment on the ideological relationship. Here's one where we disagree.

There’s something special about a guy you agree with but still root against. I kinda know how is feeling right now. I say that I'm a fan, which is to say, I’ll watch and listen but I’m not a super fan. I bring it up because apparently he and his staff had almost the same thought as I had about Trump.

Over Spring Break I met and talked shop with a few fellow #oklaed colleagues. While we were chatting I had this thought, and I expressed it to the group. They loved it and I was thrilled. I went home and wrote a tremendous portion of this entry. Then I caught Bill Maher’s show from Friday March 18.

I appreciate a lot of what Bill said and you’ll see where we agree if you choose to read the rest of this. But, I saw something else in his reaction and I want to address that as well. So here it goes...

I don't want to be too psycho-analytical but I think the rugged individualism and bootstrap attitude forged and infused into so much of our culture creates an almost subliminal aversion to anything “group” related. I think a lot of people see participation trophies are seen as an affront to this very foundational belief. And I can see where they see that. I kind of agree with them, sometimes.

Bill and I agree that The Donald is a perfect example of the negative side effects of the participation trophy culture. This is a person with an incredibly overblown ego. So overblown there is no logical or rational explanation for his worldview of himself.

How else could someone like Donald J Trump, who has failed spectacularly, so many times, on so many levels, in front of so many people, still have the lack of social awareness to declare himself such a “winner”? How else could he utter the phrase (about :50 in)“I know a lot of words, I have the best words” and expect to be taken seriously? How else could he, when asked who we should listen to on foreign policy, say (about :20) “I have a great brain and have said a lot of things, so I would listen to myself” and expect to be taken seriously?

Yes, Donald Trump is a walking participation trophy. His supporters are the parents in the helicopters applauding his buffoonery. They mistake volume as a leadership trait m. They validate his rants as policy, and his obscene inherited wealth as “hard earned”.

This is the culture Donald was raised in and continues to create for himself. An environment so detached from reality, he was able to develop a sense of entitlement and arrogance that can only be measured in how many buildings you affix your name to. Which is in no way a successful measurement of anything but your ability to spell. But, even spelling has been in issue for Trump and his campaign, see here and here.

Of course, there are several living examples that embody much of what was just described. And a lot of them are young kids. The one that concerns me right now isn't though. As a millennial I get it, we were the group that got Participation trophies, and are forever scarred because we don't know what winners are.

So Bill and I came to a similar conclusion, he goes much more cynical and heartless than I. Mostly because of a different worldview. He despises children. I do not. He has no children, I do. He doesn't want kids and doesn't want to be around them. I'm a teacher. That is perfectly fine. If that's your worldview, Don't be. As much as possible avoid them. But remember when you do have to interact with children, they are no more or less human than you. They have the same rights, as much as you want to wish them away, they get to exist. Do some of them misbehave? Yeah. Most do. A lot. So what, get over it and move on. The world isn't getting scarier from the kid's temper tantrums…. The world is getting scarier from the grown ups temper tantrums.

So having a different view of a large section of the culture will obviously lead to different understandings. His view of “the youth” can make it difficult for him to acknowledge they may not be that bad after all. After all, young kids are not having much to do with Trump. The younger the voting bloc the more peripheral he and his attempts at ideas become. I don’t have the time or resources to delve into much more of this too much, but i feel safe in assessing the millennial cooperative spirit and affinity for collaboration over competition had little to do with the “everyone gets a trophy advertisement” that is The Donald. Or if it did, I don’t think they deserve nearly the amount of blame they get to shoulder.

So, Bill and I part ways on this topic is”Who’s to blame?” Maher makes no specific mention other than “the culture”. I would take it a step further. I would add it was the adults at the time (mostly Boomers and older Gen Xers) were making these rules. It was the Boomers who parented with a “no one gets hurt safe space” attitude. Where is the outrage over who built this culture? I’ll leave that discussion for later (the who built this culture discussion) but I think even a cursory look at history would show the effects of such an environment being blamed for such outcomes, is misleading at best, and outright deceitful at worst.



So even though we get the brunt of the blame for all the evils it has created, perhaps we weren't the inventors of the Participation Trophy culture in the first place? I'm looking for nor am I awaiting an apology or anything, I just feel that it should be stated and considered. I do think it is important to know where and how this leviathan came from. If for no other reasons so we can stop the behavior and break the cycle for future generations.