“Up with Upperdogs!”

While working on a project at work today, I came across a type-written script from an internal radio broadcast. It was in with some papers from the late 60’s early 70’s, so I thought I’d give it a read.

Two things struck me: 1) we used to have a radio station at our facility??? 2) this could easily have been written TODAY, as the same things apply.

Once home, I googled part of it, and was surprised to find a page from a newspaper called “The Andover News”, dated November 9th, 1967. It has a column called “For Society’s Sake: Up with Upperdogs!” Turns out it was written by the late Dr. Upton, President of Beloit University in Beloit, WI.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did:

For Society’s Sake: Up with Upperdogs!

Dr. Upton

I have just about reached the end of my tolerance for the way our society at the present time seems to have sympathetic concern only for the misfit, the pervert, the drug addict, the drifter, the ne’er-do-well, the maladjusted, the chronic criminal, the underachiever, the loser – in general, the underdog.

We have lost touch with reality and become warped – if not in fact psychotic – in our attachments.

IT IS TIME for SOMEONE to stand up and say, “I’m for the upperdog!”

I’m for the achiever.

The one who sets out to do something and does it.

The one who recognizes the problems and opportunities at hand and endeavors to deal with them.

The one who is successful at his immediate task because he is not worrying about someone else’s failings.

The one who doesn’t consider it ‘square’ to be looking for more to do, who isn’t always rationalizing why he shouldn’t be doing what he is doing.

The one, in short, who carries the work of his part of the world squarely on his shoulders.

Not necessarily the wealthy, the ones in authority, the gifted. Just the doer, the achiever – regardless of his status, his opulence, his native endowment.

WE ARE NOT  born equal; we are born unequal. And the talented are no more responsible for their talents than the underprivileged for their plight.

The measure of each should be what he does with his inherited position. No one should be damned by the environmental condition of his life – whether it be privileged or underprivileged.

It is a dying fashion to pay respect to those who achieve – who really ‘have it’, to use the vernacular. This the the day when the fashion is to be for the underdog.

The attitude is being developed that if you really want people to care for you – who doesn’t – don’t be successful. Be a misfit, a loser, a victim of one’s environment.

I’m not sure of the reason for what appears to be a general psychological aberration. But I suspect it springs from a massive social guilt.

THE ONE MOST CERTAIN point is that our problems will be solved by doers – not people with good intentions, but people with good deeds…not those who talk a good game but those who play a good game – the achievers.

We will never create a good society, much less a great one, until individual excellence and achievement are not only respected but encouraged.

That is why I am for the upperdog, the achiever, the succeeder.

I’m for building a better society. And this will only be done by those who take seriously their responsibility for achievement , for making the most of their native ability, for getting done the job at hand.

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As profound now as it likely was then.

What say you????