Success

President Obama stated recently that his job involves seeing to it that every American has a chance to succeed. His remarks were part of a critique of Mitt Romney for offering his experience as a venture capitalist as a credential to be the U.S. President. While I get Mr. Obama's point that a capitalist shark is hardly in a position to claim largess toward all segments of society, I question this popular notion of life as a matter of striving for monetary success.

What is this success? It seems an echo of Reaganist entrepreneurial idealism. That image of every American becoming a small business person was seen as a replacement for a cohesive society which is a functioning ecology of capital and labor. Do all Americans want to be or have the skills to be independent business owners? What would be the social advantage of this model?

Government should focus on its own success at providing for the people. This success is very hard to find. The image of George Bush in a 'mission accomplished' flight suit comes to mind. Winnowing out governmental success at caring for the people from corruption and special interests is difficult.

There is no success at being human. There is no success at being a good person. These are ongoing processes of growth and development. Governments and businesses must operate on budgets with goals. Human beings, while influenced by budgets and chosen goals, are not defined by them. Being a fully formed human being goes beyond making money or attaining a big job. The current materialism at the top of the U.S. socio-economic pyramid is at odds with the nature of the people who comprise the largest part of that pyramid.

Humanist practice, as I see it, clarifies the place of material success in a life motivated by progressive individual and social change. Internalizing the essential equality of all human beings in the experience of living from birth to death opens the eyes of the humanist to the irrelevance of greed in improving the human experience. My only success in humanist practice is practicing daily for the betterment of myself and my environment to the best of my ability.