Would Reagan Recognize Us?

Ronald Reagan once said that he had hope for America because we were a nation of strivers, not of coveters.  He said that when an American sees someone succeed, they strive to achieve the same success.  Reagan's Americans do not covet the rewards of others, they strive to earn those rewards through their own success.  The rags to riches story is the story of America.  Or it was.

I told this story to a friend before last year's election.  His response was "you must be from somewhere different."  He was from California.  He said that where he was from, people just wanted to take what they needed from someone who had it.

One of my favorite tv shows is Survivor.   When the show first came on, everyone assumed it would be won by the contestant that performed best in the challenges.  From the very first season though, it was clear that it would be a social game.  Last season, a contestant named Russell probably played the game harder than anyone in the history of the show.  From the day he got on the island, he worked on alliances.  He worked alliances and manipulated players and basically controlled the game from the first day.   He also spent every spare moment searching for immunity idols.  He found all three, two without clues and before anyone else even looked.  He dominated the game and went to the final with a cute girl that basically rode his coattails to the end.

In the final episode, players previously voted out decide who will win the million dollars.  If I remember correctly, Russell only got two votes.  The other players resented the way Russell worked and earned his way to the end.  They chose to give the prize money to someone who just tagged along with a successful player.  

There was a similar outcome in the show's second season.  Colby dominated the game physically.  He won every individual challenge and took a nice single mother with him to the end.  The other players voted at the end to give the money to the single mother because she "needed" it more.  No one argued that Colby did not earn the reward, but they felt that the woman needed it more.

Survivor has become a metaphor for our country now.  As a rule, Americans no longer strive to duplicate another's success.  Now, we are guilty of coveting their rewards.  Instead of striving for a career that allows us to provide for ourselves and our loved ones, we want our government to take the rewards of success from others and give it to us.  Because we need it.

It will be hard for our society to survive when covetors outnumber strivers.  As Margaret Thatcher once said, "One of the problems with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of people whose money you can take."  Or to put in Survivor terms, when your tribe has more Sandras than Russells, you'll be spending a lot of time in tribal council.