← Back to context

Comment by SauciestGNU

21 days ago

I'm going to say something really out of pocket about the average American student, so forgive me.

Americans aren't used to having to compete. When they lose (and especially when they lose to foreigners) they get extremely resentful and behave as if something has been taken from them.

I think a large part of it is an entitlement issue that's pretty common in our culture. But there are also cultural undercurrents from resentful Americans who failed to get ahead in life that actively denigrate the concept of education and the educated.

4 comments

SauciestGNU

Reply
viccis  20 days ago

>When they lose (and especially when they lose to foreigners) they get extremely resentful and behave as if something has been taken from them.

I you even know how often I've heard students complain about "having my A taken away from me". It's insane, but it's also what to expect from a society just like you described who has been told that the point of school is to get good grades.

Now, a lot of students here are discovering that minmaxing to get a high GPA in a degree like compsci lands them firmly in jobless land if they failed to use those 4 years in an environment of learning to actually learn things. Doesn't even have to be from courses, things like student groups and competitions, research opportunities, etc.

Employers don't really want people whose sole interest is to do nothing and be rewarded for it.

linguae  20 days ago

Maybe I’m biased because I grew up in a family where my dad at one point was a musician and my siblings and I all pursued competitive careers at one point in our lives (academia, acting, business, music, sports), but I don’t know if Americans in general are averse to competition. In fact, I’d say Americans love competition. Americans generally love sports, for example.

I do agree, though, that we Americans could do a better job at handling losing, and we also have a problem with people and institutions that want to win at any cost, violating mores and laws when they are impediments to “winning.”

  • originalvichy  20 days ago

    >Americans generally love sports

    That’s funny, since I think your sports leagues are the best example of fake competitiveness. Every major sports operates a closed league.

    The greatest basketball talent ever from my country is playing for a team that’s tanking (see? it even has a word), which for those who don’t know is the act of purposefully losing games to be able to get better draft picks. Because of a closed league, the players and staff are not really punished for bad performance.

    The reason for this (besides the obvious financial reasons) is the idea of losing completely. In football leagues around thw world, historical giants have faded away to irrelevancy due to bad performances year after year or mismanagement (for which there are rules for to have fewer incidents).

    Fundamentally though the sports system is more enertainment than pure competition.