We All Live in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Now

A loud gasp suggesting both surprise and disbelief was heard in Oslo a week ago last Friday, when Thorbjorn Jagland, Nobel Committee head, announced that President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace prize.  Conservatives were aghast and asked “For what?” Liberals exclaimed the prize was awarded because the United States was again loved, while others suggested it was the transformational nature of Obama’s presidency.  Even Obama apologists had to admit that the prize honored Obama’s future multi-lateral, globalist intentions rather than results, and that the repudiation of the Bush Administration provided added value.  I think the reason was simpler. President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace prize because we all live in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood now.

What does Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood have to do with the Nobel Peace Prize?  This: as a society we have devolved to a place where best intentions and not actual results rule the day.  Nowadays everyone gets a ribbon for participating. Some high schools want to do away with valedictorian speeches so that the average student’s self-esteem isn’t bruised. In many communities we can’t keep score at Little League games anymore because nobody should feel bad about losing. Nobody wants to tell little Johnny that he is a lousy hockey player and should consider another hobby.  We are all “special people”, as Mister Rogers used to say. That is a laudable characterization of humanity.  Unfortunately, however, as Jeffrey Zaslow said in a July 2007 Wall Street Journal article,  “what often got lost in his [Rogers’] self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself.”   Hard work matters.  And a little luck is helpful, too!

A setback along the way is important because it develops coping skills, teaches us to compromise, and shows us how to share and play nicely with the other kids. According to H. Stephen Glenn, author of “Developing Capable People,” we have a whole generation of people who have been sheltered from failure, don’t know the meaning of personal responsibility, and expect immediate gratification.  Helicopter parents dote on their children, but they don’t realize that protecting them from early failures just delays the inevitable until they are in college or in their first job, when the stakes are much higher and their coping skills still undeveloped.

We have traded the sweet and innocent child’s world of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for an adult-like world that is materialistic and shallow. We live in a society where you can lose ten pounds in three days without dieting and exercise. We want instant credit. We need instant replay.  We want our double mocha lattes immediately.   We love our toys. We love status and celebrity.  We confuse want with need. We are afraid to fail. We quit too easily when things don’t go our way. We are not well served by this arrogance and immaturity.  It’s not enough to be special and liked “just the way you are”.

I suppose we should not be surprised that our 44^th President would be a man who sees the world through the prism of his own life instead of his country, and who in a speech announcing his candidacy for the presidency said, “I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness – a certain audacity – to this announcement.  I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington.“ He’s special because he’s charismatic and smart and has a wonderful personal story.  He is also unique, because unlike any other Presidents in this country’s history, he comes to the office with no significant experience, no great body of legislative accomplishments, no time put in as an executive in any capacity.  President Obama not only captured the imagination of the American electorate because he was perceived as special and transformative, he also captivated the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize committee with a nomination  after only two weeks in office as President.  As Mister Rogers would say, the committee liked Obama “just the way he is”.