Freedom to Fail

To fail means to have attempted something, whether in the pursuit of knowledge, happiness or spiritual cohesiveness, that was not successfully brought to an optimal conclusion.  Yet failure provides the possibility of success, the pursuit of justice and the idea that it is possible to be happy, whether or not we ever reach that summit of our pursuits.

Losing the ability to fail, through academic misrepresentation of a student’s capabilities (i.e., allowing a student to pass whether or not he or she is sufficiently knowledgeable in that specific academic arena) leads to a threat of freedom by occluding a citizen’s right to the pursuit of happiness.  Because there exists no success without failure, making even the playing field, disallows individuals to succeed in a tangible way. 

Entitlement Mania, which Michael Goodwin references in his video on the loss of freedom to fail, is a cause and a symptom of the lack of freedom to fail that exists in present American society.  An American citizen is born into a world where everything becomes available faster than he/she can grasp; further accelerated by technology that creates a false impression of constant availability.  By this I mean that living in the apex of a developing technologically obsessed era, artificiality breeds a certain kind of propaganda that announces that we are all equal.  A writer who publishes articles for a newspaper can now produce the same content and publish it in the blogosphere alongside an inexperienced writer who writes about a town’s local talent show.  The decline of strictly delineated professions, being supplanted by an orgy of low-brow to high-brow stuff intermingled to a dizzying effect in the media and academia makes the concept of failure benign and unreal.

This becomes dangerous when no failure breeds ignorance and a stagnant creative atmosphere in which invention and new thoughts and ideas can take place.  There are no stakes to be had.  If we allow students to pass without obtaining the proper education, we create an atmosphere where students graduate unprepared to face a world of challenges; students that are not cognizant of the fact that they have not in fact passed. 

To be real about failure; to discuss the potential failure of an individual (whether in academia or not) creates passion and the pursuit of happiness.  Failure to fail is indeed a threat to our freedom, one that denigrates the notion of success.  If we continue to pass failing students, pushing them on to the next level with zeal, we produce a society that is not capable of ingenuity and real challenge.  Failure is not politically correct anymore.  However, to fail might be a good thing in the long-term.  Failure has been a part of the creative process for artists, scientists, musicians, etc.  In fact, greatness depends on constant failure.  It is noticing failure and the loose threads in one’s ideas and endeavors that push those who are successful to winnow out the details of their imperfections and perfect them so that their pursuit prevails.