[blam]

Anyone suprised?

[wideawake]

When I was working in the South Bronx conducting remedial reading programs among "disadvantaged minority youth" the one thing that the worst kids had in common was irrationally high self-esteem.

I had thirteen year-olds who could barely read monosyllables, couldn't add double-digit numbers accurately and who were poor at sports as well. Yet these kids would brag about their sexual-physical-mental prowess, would intimidate other students verbally and physically and would take anything which was not nailed down.

If these kids needed one thing it would have been lower self-esteem - a more realistic picture of how little they knew, how destructive and stupid their behavior was and how poorly they were preparing themselves for later life.

Everytime I see someone attribute the criminality of minority youth I want to scream. Add to their ridiculously inflated self-images two other preposterous "self-esteem boosters":

(1) That the police are out to get them, not because they are violent little thugs with convictions, but because they are "strong black men" whom the "racist establishment" is trying to "bring down" and

(2) That the reason they do poorly in school is that schools are run by Jews who deliberately confuse them and hide from them the "truth" that blacks invented medical science, mechanics, music, art, literature and physics.

Afrocentrism is nothing other than a method for teaching dull, violent children that they are suffering geniuses who deserve to take revenge.

[The_Victor]

Liberals don't understand cause and effect. Low self esteem is the result of bad behavior, not the root of it.

[Axolotl]

Gee...Now I am supposed to have low self-esteem if I have high self-esteem...

Should I be depressed? ;-)

[riley1992]

Those with high self-esteem tend to damage other people, either because they are reckless and dangerous or because they're unpleasant," he said.

Say what? What a crock.

[LARoss]

The one thing I've learned working with and now raising adolescents is that many of them can sniff out hypocrisy and stupidity better than most adults. Most of them felt that the "raising self-esteem" stuff they were subjected to was fake concern from guilt-ridden adults who otherwise ignored them.

Seems to me that the result of the self-esteem nonsense has been to dumb-down, patronize, and teach kids that they have a RIGHT to have their appetites -- for position, power, and pleasure -- appeased NOW, and without much exertion on their part. That's the root of the problems this author assigns to "high" self-esteem -- IMHO.

[SocialMeltdown]

Those with high self-esteem tend to damage other people, either because they are reckless and dangerous or because they're unpleasant

No surprise.

Most criminals have excessively high self-esteem and they believe the world owes them which justifies thier criminal behavior.

[CatoRenasci]

Where all of this concern about self-esteem went wrong is that if confused self-esteem with self-respect. The fundamental difference, which should obvious to everyone but an unusually stupid child of ten (to paraphrase Bertrand Russell), is that self-respect is based on achieveing genuine goals and knowing that one has actually accomplished things while self-esteem is simply one's high opinion of oneself regardless of the facts.

No one should be surprised that self-esteem is popular with academics and popular self-gurus both, as it fits in with a deconstructionist view of reality (that it's all fiction) and with making anyone better. No requirement for the hard work of actually changing behavior or accomplishing things, just know you're better than ok.

The stupidity of concern with self-esteem rather than self-respect has been one of my pet hobby horses for years now, along with the inordinate concern in every psychology class, popular psychology book, management guru, organizational consultant and thus most schools, churches and businesses with process rather than actual results. But that's a whole other story....

[Dimensio]

Like anyone cares that my low self-esteem makes me less of a criminal risk. I'm too worthless to be bothered with anyway.

[Gabz]

Low self-esteem has become one of the most frequently cited explanations for social and personal problems, ranging from young people's involvement in violent crime to adult failures in business, and the US state of California has gone so far as to invest significant public funds in trying to raise the self-esteem of its citizens.

This is absolutely priceless!!!!!!

California spends beaucoup bucks every year explaining that people who smoke do so because of low self-esteem, among other things. OTOH, the state of California spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year telling people that smokers are low-life parasites trying to kill and corrupt everyone around them. Sounds to me like there doing much to help the self-esteem of about one quarter of the population.

Oh, and on top of that - all the money being spent, comes from the smokers themselves.

Self-esteem - my FOOT!!!!!!

[Congressman Billybob]

Phil,

I flagged this for you not so much to be used on the Show, but for your information. The comments on the thread are also worth reading.

Congressman Billybob

[Sonny M]

I knew bad self-esteen was a myth, now I can stop taking me anti-depressents and start feeling good about myself.Whooo Hooo,now if only they could find a cure for disease I got, nympomania.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

the US state of California has gone so far as to invest significant public funds in trying to raise the self-esteem of its citizens.

Only in California ...

[gumbo]

people with a high opinion of themselves could pose a far greater threat to others than those with a low sense of self-worth

Brings to mind the Clintons.

[scottiewottie]

Thanks for noticing, nobody else did.

[scottiewottie]

Thanks for noticing, nobody else did.

[VermiciousKnid]

I have always been of the opinion that "self-esteem" is a phantom created by the psychobabble crowd.

I was raised to believe that "esteem" was a quality that you cannot bestow upon yourself; rather, it was something that was bestowed upon you by others, and that those who did bestow it upon themselves were generally self-important, narcissistic blowhards who came dangerously close to committing the mortal sin of Pride.

Let's imagine for a moment, however, that such a thing as "self-esteem" does exist. It has been the education establishment's belief for years now that if a child is GIVEN "self-esteem," then he will do well in school. Of course, this is complete and utter nonsense. A child will gain this "self-esteem" (which is really self-confidence -- and a whole 'nother ball of wax) only AFTER he does well at a given task. They've had it backwards for years, and I think perhaps it is the root of nearly ALL their problems for the last 25-30 years.

Regards,

[Terry Mross]

I have low self esteem coupled with an inflated ego. It's mixed emotions. Sort of like having your teenage daughter come home at three in the morning with a Gideon bible.

[savedbygrace]

Bump for later

[Dan Day]

I read a more detailed discussion of this study in Scientific American a few months ago, and it makes a lot of sense.

What the study actually says is not that "high self esteem", period, is a problem -- what *is* a problem is the sort of overblown arrogant high self-esteem that is not based on actual reality.

A person with high self esteem because he is the president of a successful company is not prone to violence. A person with overinflated self esteem who is actually a loser, on the other hand, will be prone to attack anyone who deflates his balloon, both to shut up the unpleasant truths that he has rationalized away, and to "prove" to the threat to his conceit that he is really the "better man".

The article in Sci.Am. pointed out that the really dangerous people throughout history were hardly suffering from low self-esteem, they were in fact supreme egotists -- Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Bundy, Gacy, etc. Even bin Laden is clearly a huge egotist, not a person subject to low self-esteem and doubt.

And you won't find many shrinking violets among the violent felons in prison, either.

From personal experience, all the dangerous bullies I've ever known were incomparably arrogant bastards, not self-doubters.

The article mentioned that the same is true of nations -- nations with high self esteem because of actual accomplishment feel no need to throw their weight around to prove anything (e.g., the United States). On the other hand, arrogant nations which have a brittle arrogance about their own worth, for no good reason, are the ones most likely to actually go to war or take some other rash action to try to prove to themselves, and others, that they're as good as they keep saying they are.

The most dangerous thing you can do to an overblown ego is to embarrass them, either intentionally or unintentionally. If you do, they'll spend the rest of their days trying to either regain their lost ground, or punish you for taking them down a notch from their (perceived) well-deserved high perch.

Yes, those with low-self esteem sometimes strike out with violence if they feel too helpless or aggrieved. But that's not nearly as common as the bully with the overinflated ego who feels that he *deserves* to mistreat other people, that people who seem to threaten his "obvious" entitlements *deserve* to be punished, and that anyone who might make the bully face unpleasant truths about himself needs to be shut up, permanently.

[JoeSchem]

I was rather surprised that low self-esteem is not a risk factor for drug and alcohol abuse.