Celebrate Mediocrity

Americans are faced with a conundrum in today’s society. We are taught that we must excel at something in order for our life to be fulfilling. Our society insists that we not settle for mediocrity, and instead strive to be the best. However, this causes a paradox within itself. Since people are discouraged from continuing activities that they are inept or merely normal at; the people by whom we judge success now have no one to be compared to except for the others who are the crème de la crème. This creates an ever tightening cycle that eventually leads to the cutthroat competition that leads to things like moms trying to kill cheerleaders, and skaters injuring each other in order to win. The more and more selective our society becomes, the more violent the interactions surrounding competitions become. When we allow mediocrity to flourish, we confirm the importance of morality, and more importantly, we allow for competition to be enjoyed and laughed about. Without people making stupid, beginner mistakes, there is nobody to learn from, nobody to laugh with. Instead, it becomes an obsession from which there is no escape. The mindset that mediocrity is bad must be quashed in our society. There cannot be a leader if there are no followers, and we are attempting to deprive leaders of their ability to lead. Instead of discouraging mediocrity, we must embrace it. Mediocrity is what gives us a chance to show our humanity, to prove that everyone is equal. We are rapidly becoming an elitist society, and when we become a society of elitists, we become a society that has no future.