Great

​Great
What if Great is not Good?

Do you want to be great? It seems everyone does. Athletes are particularly prone to claiming greatness, sometimes just for one play, other times for eternity, when they are said to be GOATs - greatest of all time. They don't seem to see that they are often the goat in that joke. Greatness seems to exist on a sliding scale rather like dues at the YMCA, ranging from the Queen for a Day to the aforementioned GOAT. Movie stars, singers and performers of all types strive for greatness and are often proclaimed such, sometimes by fans or critics, and oft times by themselves. This would appear to be an automatic disqualification, but clearly humility is not necessary for greatness. Even the country wants to be great, with one side wanting to make it great again and the other wanting to make it great, or at least better, soon. Like so many things, greatness is in the eye of the beholder, and greatness and absurdity seem to be kissing cousins.

I don't strive to be great, nor do I expect greatness in our leaders or for the country. I hope for good. Good has dozens of definitions and is used in a multitude of ways. I like to think of it as meaning competent, capable and fair. That doesn't mean perfect or the very best; it doesn't mean being right all the time or never making a mistake. It does mean owning up to your errors and trying not to repeat them. This is especially important for counties but seems to be most difficult. Neither countries nor people are very adept at that kind of introspection. Both are better at rationalization than responsibility.

One of the problems with great is that it seems too often to give license to a "by any means necessary" approach. Fair doesn't play a part in the path to great. On Wall Street or on the playing field, ethics are ignored and laws and rules are inconveniences to be manipulated and circumvented. Politicians are particularly prone to grandiosity and manipulation. Politics is rife with gerrymandering from Texas to New York, from Virginia to New Mexico and just about everywhere else. Nick Seabrook, in his book One Person, One Vote: A Surprising History of Gerrymandering in America, terms New York a "criminal oligarchy" for its uniquely corrupt and bipartisan gerrymandering schemes.

Laws are made by and for the highest bidder and enforcement is the prerogative of "constitutional" sheriffs and progressive DA's, among others. Corporate titans like Jack Welsh of GE not only get rich but are feted as great leaders who are studied in business schools across the land, largely on their ability to game the tax code and fire workers. All this and more is justified and justifiable in pursuit of greatness.

Of course, one is tempted to ask how this came to be. It seems to be endemic in the human psyche, especially when people are inhabiting large, organized groups. In these situations, human competitiveness and aggression flourish and are often rewarded. The situation is much exaggerated by the rise of the media megaphone - 24-hour news and incessant social media found success by yelling: make it louder, make it more catastrophic, make it personal. This constant hyping of everything has accelerated the human tendency toward narcissism and grandiosity, hence the fixation on greatness.
Perhaps it is a generational thing. My mother asked me innumerable times to be good, but I do not recall a single instance when she suggested I should or could be great. Could that be why I was an underachiever? Not only did I never achieve greatness, I never even knew it was something that I should aspire to. Goodness was at my radar screen even if I fell short so often.
I think we would all be better off if no one aspired to greatness. It could result in less greed, less conflict, less bragging and bullying. From the ancients like Peter and Catherine and Alexander, who all claimed the title of Great, to 20th century pretenders of grandiosity like Stalin and Hitler and Mao, to the current crop of self-indulgent narcissists like Putin, Trump, Bolsonaro and Xi, those who would stop at nothing for greatness have wreaked havoc on the world. We don't need great leaders, we need good leaders; we need good people, good citizens - competent, capable and fair.
Great is not good.