The Importance of Excellence

Editor’s Note: I am on vacation through the end of the week. Today’s, Friday’s, and Sunday’s posts were penned a few days ago, so if they seem a bit behind current events, you now know why.

Actor Timothée Chalamet got many tongues wagging the other night at the Screen Actors Guild awards ceremony. Not because of the 29 year old Hollywood heartthrob's looks, but because he offered an unconventional acceptance speech when awarded Best Actor for portraying Bob Dylan in the movie A Complete Unknown.

I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is, this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero, and it was the honor of a lifetime playing him.

I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I’m inspired by the greats. I’m inspired by the greats here tonight. I’m as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and I want to be up there. So I’m deeply grateful. This doesn’t signify that, but it’s a little more fuel. it’s a little more ammo to keep going. Thank you so much.

Wanting to be great at your craft is very traditionally American, which means that certain populations of self-important self-loathers really can't abide it. The pursuit of greatness is often relegated to athletic endeavors in our young, with academic standards being steadily diluted by our educational establishment in order to cover for its decades of failure. That relegation turns into delegation, to excellence-by-proxy in the form of sports (or other entertainment) fandom.

The school I attended from sixth through twelfth grades had a wood shop, and the shop teacher and one of my eventual mentors, Mr. J. Forest Vey (“the ‘J’ stands for Jehovah, but you may call me God”), taught the pursuit of perfection. Signs in the shop, done in calligraphic form (he taught that as well), read:

Good enough is not good enough. Make it perfect.

and

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.

The latter aphorism traces back 1600 years to St. Jerome of Stridon, and it served as a constant reminder not to ‘phone it in’ on a project.

A more modern prophet, Ron Swanson, similarly implored us:

Other pop culture embraces of excellence include The Wolverine, who notes,

I'm the best there is at what I do,

and John Wick, who is admired as,

a man of focus, commitment, sheer will.

Contrast this with the modern narratives that focus on identity and on socialism.

Identity is about who you are rather than what you do. Others are expected to celebrate (or denounce) you based on either things not under your control, such as skin color, sex, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, or on things you merely choose, such as the ever-growing list of genders, body modifications such as tattoos and piercings, or stylistic choices such as attire, make-up, and hair color.

The problem with this is laid bare by Jethro Tull's song Wind Up:

How do you dare tell me
That I'm my Father's son?
When that was just an accident of birth

I'd rather look around me
Compose a better song
'Cos that's the honest measure of my worth

Socialism is, as David Mamet aptly put it, the abdication of responsibility.

I've yet to meet the Marxist who expects to be managed per the first half of his infamous aphorism, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Invariably, they all figure to be on the receiving end of that coercive transfer of wealth, while pursuing whatever (often idle) interests catch their wandering eyes.

Neither identity nor socialism drive an individual to pursue excellence. This may be a reason that the modern narrative produces so much unhappiness, grievance, and dissatisfaction. When you achieve something through personal, persistent effort and will, genuine satisfaction follows. Overcoming the difficult or completing a challenging task feeds the soul, or if you prefer, triggers the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain.

Which brings us to Chalamet's acceptance speech. Yes, he was receiving external validation of his efforts. As he notes, his is a subjective business. Art is about presenting your efforts to others, whether it be to make them happy, to make them think, or to elicit some other form of reaction. But, he speaks of being driven by a desire for excellence, and that’s not something that others can bestow.

About a hundred fifty years ago, novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford penned the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This now-ubiquitous observation is not, however, really a validation of the notion that art is truly subjective. As one rebuttal I’ve heard goes, if it were, we would never agree on anything. Is the conclusion that Michelangelo's David or the paint he daubed onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are magnificent works of art purely subjective? Is the universal acclaim for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony just a mass psychosis?

Certainly, in art there is room for personal preference and disagreement. Is Vermeer's Girl With A Pearl Earring better than Leonardo's Mona Lisa?

That sort of subjectivity is limited. Only a troll would argue that the amorphous blobs of paint I slapped on a piece of oaktag in kindergarten could be compared favorably to either of those masterpieces. If beauty were truly in the eye of the beholder, then why wouldn't my blobs find admirers?

Point is, we can reach consensus on excellence in art, and that tells artists they can pursue agreed-upon excellence. Award shows aren't necessarily the pinnacle or final word on artistic excellence, especially since Hollywood is a business and since politics are deeply infused into that world, but they can affirm the performer's strive for excellence.

While some found Chalamet's honesty and self-challenge odd, I thought it was great. We need more of that in our society. We need more people wanting to be the best of the best, and not just in acting or sports. Societies don't flourish by expecting or demanding that others achieve, they do so when achievement is baked into every one of us.