Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506190009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Among unsolicited new tomes that recently crossed the desk of this newspaper's book editor: a work titled "The Four Pillars of Self-Esteem."
As a people, Americans seem increasingly quick to perceive grievance and file a lawsuit at every stroke of misfortune; to claim divine sanction for the pursuit of their own individual economic interests and political goals; and to see behind every personal setback not one's own inadequacies or bad luck but rather the hand of a victimizer. In some schools, meanwhile, the importance of self-esteem is losing its attachment to behavior or achievement. Better feel good about yourself, no matter what you've done.
More than another set of pillars for self-esteem, perhaps Americans could use a few lessons in humility.
In most periods of U.S. history there've been some folks - maybe it's a self-esteem thing - who've shown a fondness for elaborate if unverifiable conspiracy theories to explain the world around them.
Even so, the views of five private-militia members, as expressed this week before a panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are more than a bit strange. The U.S. Army has embarked on a secret program to build "civilian prison camps"? The United Nations is causing tornadoes in rural America so as to destroy crops and starve the population?
Among other problems with such assertions, they assume a level of efficiency on the part of federal and U.N. bureaucracies for which there is scant evidence or precedent.
by CNB