Gee, You're Swell!

It's almost as if we've become afraid of the truth. It might seem that we go out of our way to reaffirm the positive in everyone to the degree that many of us are surprised when things don't go exactly as we had planned: we actually lose sometimes. We don't get the position or promotion we wanted; our team doesn't win the requisite number of games; our love life goes south, and we're left scratching our heads and wondering how it could happen to US! This sense of entitlement is running rampant in society, and we propagate it daily, well, except for the goths who treat every day as if it were being lived in a toilet.
Every kid on every team gets a certificate or a trophy or a plaque simply by virtue of being on the team. Most schools promote students without the necessary academic credentials because their psyche would be damaged. Even Harvard University has voiced serious questions about grade inflation. We continually allow stupid politicians to make disastrous decisions and calmly wait for them to simply go away. Nobody seems to have the gumption to relate a message that says, "I'm sorry. You've failed. Keep trying or simply go away." Tom Greaves is out to either make that point dramatically or provide positive feelings for all, depending on ones perspective.
Greaves has erected the Compliment Machine on 14th St. NW in Washington, D.C. At random intervals, the highly-visible red and white box emits compliments like "You look great today," or "People really respect you." He has recorded a hundred such compliments on an iPod Nano and powered the whole thing with a car battery. He occasionally changes the compliments issued and takes the Nano out at night to avoid theft. It's all part of art...or a sociological comment on society.
The Compliment Machine is part of an outdoor exhibit by Washington Project for the Arts, and draws a variety of responses from quizzical looks to smiling faces. Greaves indicated that he got the idea from the Pompidou Center in Paris where a dummy hangs and periodically lurches forward and strikes a bell with its head. The randomness of the act is an integral part of Greaves' machine...but giving compliments? Rather harmless, I suspect, but yet another way for us to avoid what might be the reality that we are NOT the best and, sometimes, life hands us a rotten deal. Of course, there are plenty of real people out there to "help" us remember those facts! Thanks for reading...you're incredibly literate and astute today! ;)