Oprah Sacks Rome: The Problem with Self-Esteem in Higher Education and Popular Culture

In a mock graduation speech by Neil Postman I assign to students in my sophomore inquiry course, Postman tells his audience they have a choice between being an “Athenian” or a “Visigoth.” The choice to join one of these two tribes is based upon certain values processed by the individual. To an Athenian, contemplation, experimentation, reasoning, and questioning in the quest for knowledge and excellence are activities held in high esteem. To a Visigoth, such activities are valuable only if they help earn you more money or power over others. The less-than-subtle point I hope to make to my students is that the real value of an education is learning to reject their inner-Visigoth and become an Athenian. Unfortunately, our society is failing to produce Athenians and instead is rewarding our most Visigoth-like tendencies.

Take for example the growing belief in higher education that the current generation of students suffers from a self-esteem problem — a problem of too much self-esteem. A new study by San Diego State psychology professor Jean Twenge, timed to coincide with the release of the paperback version of her book Generation Me, contends that current generation of college students are more narcissistic than their Gen X predecessors. While Twenge does not believe students suffer from pathological narcissism, she does make a good case that narcissistic attitudes have increased because of self-esteem programs adopted in elementary schools about 20 years ago.

Despite decades of survey research backing her up, Twenge has come under heavy criticism from some of her colleagues. Marc Flacks, an assistant professor of sociology, told the LA Times he believed that narcissism was too harsh a description for current students. While acknowledging it was important to discuss why our society rewards narcissistic behavior, he concluded, "This is a bottom-line society, so students are smart to seek the most direct route to the bottom line. If you don't have a me-first attitude, you won't succeed." Flacks is clearly arguing that students should choose to be Visigoths because they will be more successful. He also shifts the debate away from the individual to society, absolving students of any sense of self-responsibility or responsibility to others. However, Generation Me's troubling lack of respect for others (especially authority figures) is not their biggest problem.

My experiences in the classroom suggest Generation Me's biggest problem really is their lack of respect for scholarly knowledge and intellectual inquiry as in end in and of itself. They simply do not see the value in choosing to be an Athenian. This is reflected in a growing anti-intellectualism among students fostered, in part, I think by the refusal of their parents or high school teachers to ever tell them they are wrong or to correct them. Students seem to believe that all points of view are equally valid, no matter what. Gary A. Olson writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a typical exchange between a professor and a student:

The student's peremptory dismissal -- "Well, that's his opinion" -- is not an aberration. That assertion and the attitude it embodies have become endemic, not only in society at large but in academe. Apparently, nowadays an opinion will trump a fact, a reasoned argument, an empirically verified observation -- even a treatise by an eminent scholar. An opinion is the great equalizer, and everyone has one. It silences all arguments, squelches all dialogue: That's your opinion. End of discussion.

Olson points out that it is not just students who believe all opinions are equally valid. Faculty members and administrators are not immune from this new anti-intellectualism. Faculty who are denied tenure for failing to meet certain tenure standards are increasingly suing their universities because they feel their negative evaluations are just someone's opinion.

Unfortunately, this anti-intellectualism is not restricted to the higher education. Students merely reflect the society in which they live. One highly visible pop culture example of the self-esteem movement's anti-intellectualism is Oprah Winfrey's devotion to a book called The Secret. The secret of this self-help book is that people need only visualize what they want in order to get it. In a scathing review of the book on Salon.com, Peter Birkenhead points out an obvious problem with this philosophy that seems to take being a Visigoth to an entirely new level:

[The Secret] is indistinguishable from, and inextricably bound up in the Oprah idea of self-esteem, the kind of confidence you get not from testing yourself, but from 'believing' in yourself. This modern idea of faith isn't arrived at the old-fashioned way, by asking questions, but by getting answers. Instead of inquiry we have born-again epiphanies and cheesy self-help books -- we have excuses for not engaging in inquiry at all. Let other people schlep down the road to Damascus; we'll have Amazon send Damascus to us."

The self-esteem movement and pop-psychobabble like The Secret are just one source of the growing anti-intellectualism in our society. Conservatism and certain forms of Evangelical Christianity are another. From topics ranging from evolution to global warming, many conservatives and Evangelical Christians, demand "objective and unbiased" media coverage and school instruction. The problem is the truth, which by definition is always unbiased, it is not always objective. When conservatives admonish school boards to "teach the debate" they ignore the fact that not everything is a debate with two or more equally valid sides. A lot of time there is, but not always. Insisting that there are fits well with the philosophy of The Secret — if you just visualize the existence of a debate long enough it will become the truth. In other words, denying that global warming is a reality will eventually make it go away. Or global warming is "just your opinion."

There is a growing belief in higher education that the current generation of students suffers from a problem of too much self-esteem. While I agree students seem to be getting more self-absorbed over time, their narcissism is not the biggest problem. It is their lack of intellectual curiosity and their unwillingness to engage in the most basic forms of inquiry that pose the greatest challenge to society. Encouraged by the self-help movement, a lack of criticism from their parents and teachers, pop culture icons like Oprah, and a media that panders to conservatives students are embracing, not rejecting their inner-Visigoth. When called on it by an Athenian, they see no harm in this. All I can say to this is I hope Oprah realizes in the end, she is sacking Rome.