rooting for failure

Why? You can do better.

I happened upon CNN the other day while Rush Limbaugh was talking (I swear this was an accident), and I caught him saying that he's hoping Barack Obama will fail.

He made his case. It was fair enough, as those things go. He said he didn't believe in Obama's policies, and offered up the argument that it was only logical for him to want those policies to fail. Pretty standard political bullshit.

Politics isn't something to talk about here, but Limbaugh's speech got me thinking in broader terms.

Believing in something is tantamount to wanting it to succeed -- to win -- but the question becomes whether or not that's the same thing as rooting for the failure of something else. I don't think it is.

Instead, I'd argue that rooting for failure is a kind of quiet proof that whatever it is you do advocate isn't strong enough to begin with. If you truly believe what you're about is better, you've got no compelling reason to feel passionately about anything else.

The better strategy is to not waste energy and attention on what you don't like, and instead pour that effort into things you can actually control. Or, in other words, you can want to beat someone else without simultaneously wishing them harm.

It's a fine line, but it matters.

Comments

[Jamie S. Rich]

Well said!

[andy]

well said +1

[neal]

Thanks for the kind words. It's much appreciated.

[david]

I guess, I'm +2. Some people have made a career out of believing in nothing.