Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Protestant Work Ethic Is Alive and Well, Part 2

In an earlier post I noted that the Protestant Work Ethic was alive and well... in Israel. Link here.

As I suggested, if the work ethic has been killed off in America, much of the credit must go to the therapy culture. Having denounced the work ethic as a ploy designed to repress your sexuality and render you neurotic, it convinced far too many people that their life's goal should be the pursuit of pleasure.

God knows, I am not suggesting that people should experience any less enjoyment in life, but God also knows that success is the mother of pleasure, and that if you fail too often your capacity for pleasure will be seriously undermined.

All of this to introduce an article entitled "My Lazy American Students" by Professor Kara Miller. Link here.

Miller has had the enviable opportunity to teach college-level students from all over the world. She reports that American students are markedly less diligent, less assiduous, less focused, and less hard-working than students from the rest of the world.

Today's American college students are leading the world in sloth! They have no concept of getting their work in on time or of concentrating on the tasks at hand.

Miller judges her American charges to be more creative than their Asian and Latin American counterparts, but what use is their creativity when they are constantly falling behind on their assignments and are barely prepared for class.

Miller's conclusion echoes one that I have been arguing for some time now. If you believe that America's future lies in its youth, and if you believe that hard work, and only hard work, can dig us out of the financial hole we have gotten ourselves into, then there is little cause for optimism.

Apparently, students the world over understand that the world is a highly competitive place and that consistent success will only come to those who work hard and who follow the simple precepts of the Protestant Work Ethic.

Only American students are thoroughly clueless about this concept, and its practice.

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