In the 1960’s, Andy Warhol famously predicted, “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” His prediction turned out to be right. The speed of modern communications and the rise of the internet have made it so.
Most of us may not be seeking fifteen minutes of fame, but we all seek confirmation that we are accepted, needed, worthy, or “all right.” Some want more. Perhaps an elusive quality called greatness. We remember Alexander the Great. Darius the Great. Peter the Great. Catherine the Great. Charles the Great. Wilhelm the Great. And dozens of other greats. Yet, on some level we know this kind of greatness isn’t available to 99.99 percent of us, so perhaps we’d like to hear that we are special, or great in our own way. If not that, maybe we just want to live in a great community or a great country. Many want to “Make America Great Again” even though this definition of greatness is nostalgic or just plain vague.
What is it about greatness that attracts us? I was often told to “stand out” or “make my mark” if I could, so I might be “remembered” – someday. I know I wanted to work for and with great people. Yet, it’s one thing to do a good job and receive a well-deserved reward or appropriate recognition for it, and another, perhaps a more insidious thing, to require constant reassurance that one is great or lives in a great place.
For many years, administrators at my university repeatedly told us that we worked at a “special” place, a “great” institution of higher learning. But some of us seemed to be more interested in getting on with our work than in hearing a declaration of greatness every time we gathered. It seems to me a great place does not need to announce it, except for perhaps a Founder’s Day ceremony or some other important occasion. Similarly, a citizen of a great country should not need to fly a flag all the time in order to feel patriotic.
We now have cable network programs dedicated to promoting American greatness – exceptionalism, some call it – daily. And a lot of people believe we should avoid teaching children about any lapses in our greatness – Jim Crow laws, slavery, lynching, massacres, redlining, voter suppression, internment camps, and other historical injustices related to race. Perhaps nationalistic viewers only want to hear about what makes us great and believe anything that detracts from that should be censored.
It also seems to me that something is very wrong if we need to advertise our greatness. It’s easy to revel in an imagined past or a glorious future, or to whitewash history, so we can continue to feel great about ourselves. It’s much more difficult to try to comprehend both the good and the bad, to honor our achievements and rectify our failures.
If we aspire to greatness, the price is much higher than simply telling ourselves over and over how great we are. We must do something great, such as actually working towards liberty and justice for all. The greatest persons in history were called “great” by others – after they proved themselves worthy of the title. Whenever one expected constant praise, he was behaving like a narcissist. Only a narcissist would insist on being identified by his self-proclaimed greatness. Truly great persons have reflected that they felt humbled or honored when others called them great.
MurrayWorks 