Motivation Is In the Eye of the Beholder

There is a video clip on the internet at the moment telling about a special needs student at a school in America who has wound up as manager of the school's basketball team.  At least two of my friends have posted a link to this video on facebook with appropriate comments about how incredibly inspiring it all is.  Well, if you're a special needs kid with a penchant for basketball I suppose it might be.  Personally I don't find it particularly inspiring but then I'm not crazy about basketball.

If you want to inspire me tell me a story about how an intelligent but fundamentally lazy person unexpectedly wound up incredibly rich through no effort of their own.  On second thoughts, don't unless you think that jealousy is the handmaiden of inspiration.

I actually do believe that jealousy is the handmaiden of inspiration.  For every person who strives to achieve something for the personal satisfaction it gives them or from a genuine desire to benefit the human race countless more do it merely to big note themselves or so they can spit in the eye of their neighbours, relatives or whoever it was who gave them a hard time.  Florence under the Medici was the centre of the renaissance; art, philosophy, education all flourished and this was largely because being a patron of the arts was one of the ways the wealthy of that city measured status.  Going further back the Roman republic was largely built by wealthy, powerful men who measured their prestige by service to the state. 

Further down the pecking order cities throughout the empire (sorry, republic) gained their civic amenities and beautification courtesy of the local wealthy who might not have been able to compete with the senators in Rome but who still wanted to point out that they were large fish in their particular small pond.  One of the reasons why Rome was able to rule such a large area was because with the exception of the army the government didn't actually have to pay for too much.  The lower levels of the administration were staffed by slaves and the higher levels by aristocrats who were not only not paid but were expected to contribute to the cost of their position from their own resources.

So, if you want to motivate your underachieving offspring you can either play them heartwarming videos of special needs basketball managers or you can tell them that somebody they really hate has been boasting about their achievements.  The choice is entirely yours.