The lucky country journeys into mediocrity

 By Victoria B.

I swore that if Abbott became Prime Minister I would cease to admit I’m Australian. It’s not the party he represents, but the absence of vision, and the shame that this is the best leadership we have to offer.

Don’t let me mislead you. I’m not talking about politics, but the absence of inspiring people to lead a nation. My concern is the nation’s concerted drive towards mediocrity.

Courtesy Forbes

I read once that Gertrude Stein was asked why she wrote ‘A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,’ and she answered to the effect that only then do you see the colour red.

Let me try ‘Mediocrity is mediocrity is mediocrity is mediocrity.’ Does anyone other than me see the seeds of tyranny and the death throes of creativity and the human spirit?

I see it in Public Relations, a giant industry promoting the stratification of roles in society and the cutting of suits of the same cloth within each. 

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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I see it in the education system, where teachers are about to be graded out of 5 for performance. Huh! I laugh like the Lion King at the thought, but know that I won't be having the last laugh. This practice will be deadly for teachers and students, because the grading is based on a vision of black and white rules for what is right, what 'works'.

In the name of enhanced excellence we are sewing straight jackets of mediocrity. Who defines the rules? People in entrenched positions in the government and its bloated bureaucracy, and/or people approved by those people.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Intelligence  is infinitely complex. The more you limit its definition  the more mediocre your interpretation, the less vision you allow in your citizens and the more children who fail your concepts from the outset.

I see it in the universities, where the power figures and multiplying employed are in Finance and Human Relations. Academics have become redundant unless they produce marketable items.

I see it in the local councils, who sit behind closed doors and write up  their projects showing enhanced community engagement, who produce great looking records on the web, when the truth is the same number of people are disengaged and only encounter the Council as the levier of inexplicably multiplying and increasing fees. The footwork for quality engagement and communication with residents rather than at them simply doesn't take place. As the first rung of government in a community, the mediocrity of their vision represents the first failure of government to promote the spirit that promotes vision.

I see it in the ever-increasing rules for all to fix the misdemeanours of one, and in the ever-increasing eagerness to fine and punish.

We are bombarding people and institutions with pressures to conform.

The progress of a society and the pursuit of excellence are not to be attained by judgements, but by the opening of doors.

Picasso said “If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse... but surely you will see the wildness!”  

Today’s society would punish the child, the youth, the adult that showed the wildness, and fail the painter for his bad horse.