Opinion/Editorial
THE SUCCESS OF HUMAN FAILURE
Every time human social or physical sciences come up with something that truly separates homo sapiens from other seemingly intelligent species on this planet it has to later retract the exclusivity of humanity. Toolmakers. We are not the only toolmakers. There are several species that fashion tools to break into things, out of things and acquire better food sources. Math. Other animals can do rather astounding mathematics calculations, including parrots and octopus. The list goes on and on. Response to failure may be the only area where humanity excels over all other species. Humans respond to failure like no other beings (we know of) in the universe.
We get it. We fail, time after time, accept the failure as a necessary correctional requirement and then we change. We do this with physical failure, which is not exclusive to us, as other animals (and even some plant life) react to Pavlovian responses too. However, it is the social, emotional, and psychological reaction to failure that allows the human mind to grow, develop and become ever more complex. This process allows humans to be the most dominant species in the known universe.
How do humans do this? How do we react to the failure of job loss, social rejection, or expulsion, crushing rejection or even family dissolution? We change our behavior. Nothing changes human behavior like failure. You can go back in history and review the near planet-shattering changes brought about by the human response to failure. The very ability of humans to destroy the planet, the invention and refinement of nuclear weapons, readily illustrates human response to failure. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Germans were overwhelming the rest of the world. World War II was a war fought in response to failure as the guiding force of all humanity. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens were killed to assure that prior failure in dealing with their government would not lead to the collapse of another social grouping.
We need to fail. And we, as humans, need to do it all the time. When we fail, we invariably get better, unless we blame the failure on others, and then nothing much changes. Failure at work leads to being fired. The reasons for being fired can take up much more space than we have available to accommodate here. In general, being fired at one’s job is a failure of personally epic proportions. Yet, out of such circumstances most people build something from the ‘rubble’ of such a condition that far outstrips the circumstance itself. Failure at sports, work, educational pursuit, and even marriage generally serves as a prime motivational foundation for future human success. Failure causes humans to consider the real world, as opposed to the phenomenal world they are used to accommodating in order to get along in a made-up world where reality is ephemeral, at best.
Joseph Campbell, the famous anthropologist, coined a phrase wherein he called upon all humanity to “follow your bliss.” He was writing about failure when he invented that phrase. He meant that humans must always look ahead to a brightness that only humans can create in spite of dark recesses, abscesses and asides that occur all along the lifeline known as our human condition. The creation of that ‘brightness’ is all about reacting to failure. Adventure is doing something dangerous that has a happy ending. In other words, doing things of merit and note in this life, roughly defined as living by most intelligent members of the species, is deeply tied to having problems to overcome and impediments to success. These problems and impediments are laced intricately with failure.
Go out there tomorrow and fail. If you failed yesterday then smile, knowing that you are simply walking down a path of adventure intended to separate you from the rest of non-sentient animal life. You are here for a reason. You are here to fail…and to be the better for it.
