Imagine local ‘Shark Tank’-like events: What better way to communicate the idea that hard work pays off than with an event devoted to making hard work pay off!
I want for this story to take the culture back – which is the ultimate in post-modern absurdity since it is culture – but this is not simply a matter of concern to poets. Transmitting the idea that hard work pays off is a job that each of us must undertake.
With our children, of course and obviously. But I think we should be doing this with everyone. The West is falling because it won’t stand up for itself, but The West stands up for itself by standing up for itself – by publicly and unashamedly being itself.
And that’s why I love the television show Shark Tank. I normally avoid reality shows, since they exist to celebrate the worst in human behavior. Shark Tank is not immune to this, but the entrepreneurs themselves make up for everything. Here is a program devoted to self-interest, with avid strivers showing you step-by-step how they effect their striving.
It’s so rich in my kind of values, I’m amazed it hasn’t been destroyed (yet) by Marxist ideologues. Shark Tank is the closest thing remaining in the United States to an evangelical church: It recruits people muddling in the middle and puts them firmly on the side of human virtue.
And that’s a benedy that should be shared.
It could be this already exists. If not, it’s easy enough to set up. The big idea? Local Shark Tanks: In an underused hotel ballroom or restaurant dining room, local entrepreneurs seek partnerships with local investors. Call it an Investment Roundup or a Small Business Smackdown to avoid copyright issues, but once a month – or once a week – put strivers together with an audience and see what emerges.
Better businesses, yes, but also better business ideas, since the commercial ‘out-marriage’ of strangers will tend to surface the best ideas from each of them by way of intellectual cross-pollination.
But that exogamy does an even better job, the benedic benefit I’m looking for: By ‘marrying’ each other in the pursuit of shared values, we unite with each other in the defense of common interests.
In business as in marriage, exogamy makes friends and allies out of people who might otherwise see each other as enemies. By sharing our values with each other, we discover how much they are alike, even though the paths by which we have come together might have been radically different.
And what better way to communicate the idea that hard work pays off than with an event devoted to making hard work pay off!
That kind of poetic perfection is a resonance we should not ignore. If you want to live among people who live up to your humanity, you must cultivate them – starting with your self.
This is a way of accelerating that process: Making friends, recruiting allies – and getting rich.
And that is the benedy of The West.
