Steve Duin’s column about Greg Oden in The Oregonian last week is going to make a lot of Oregonians mad – and not just Greg Oden fans.
Oden, you may recall, is the center who was acquired as a first-round draft pick with much fanfare (and a great many dollars) by the Portland Trail Blazers back in 2007. To put it kindly, he has not lived up to his advance notices.
Addressing his remarks to Oden, Duin writes: “You have missed 164 games – two FULL seasons – nursing those bum knees. Not only have those injuries stunted your development, but the Sam Bowie impression is so convincing that even when you do come back, coaches and fans will wince each time you turn into the lane.”
Then Duin’s column expands from an indictment of Oden into an indictment of Oregon.
Again addressing Oden, he reassures him, “In this idyllic backwater of complacent mediocrity, you fit right in.”
“Oregon is the last great sanctuary for underachievers,” Duin continues, twisting the knife in the wound. “When you want to record 1,800 billable hours at your law firm each year instead of 2,000, you move to Oregon. When you’d rather sell your small start-up for $400,000 than commit to the work that might make it worth $400 million, you end up in Oregon. …
“Oregon is an early retirement home for those who’d rather kayak in a small pond than risk drowning in a large one.”
Ouch.
It’s a painful indictment – but I believe it’s a fair one.
With a few notable exceptions (think “Ducks and Beavers football”) Oregon isn’t the kind of place that prizes achievement or excellence. The prevailing culture is easy-does-it, don’t-rock-the-boat, good-enough-is-good-enough. Sometimes even less than good enough is considered good enough.
We pay lip service to the idea of attracting industry and encouraging entrepreneurs, but our culture disdains people who are too industrious and entrepreneurial. Anybody who really hustles, who seems too ambitious, too assertive, too pushy, risks becoming a pariah.
That’s not the Oregon way, we sneer. It’s more like the California way, or (horrors!) the New York way.
Having spent the first 28 years of my life on the East Coast and lived in California before moving to Oregon 25 years ago, I can attest that these cultural differences are not imaginary, nor are they empty stereotypes. They’re real.
And I often wonder if Oregon’s lackadaisical, mellowed-out, anti-achievement attitude isn’t a big reason why the state chronically lags in the economic race – maybe even a bigger reason than tax rates or regulations or land use laws or any of the other usual suspects.
I don’t know how we got that attitude, but we’d better find a way to change it. Or else be content to keep paddling around in that same stagnant and shrinking little pond.
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
GO BACK TO CALI THEN!
See? That’s exactly what I mean. If anybody dares to suggest that Oregon could use improvement in any area, he gets the “GO BACK TO CALIFORNIA” (or New York or Minnesota or wherever) response. Oregonians are comfortable with mediocrity and get angry when anybody tries to push them out of their comfort zone.
“When you'd rather sell your small start-up for $400,000 than commit to the work that might make it worth $400 million, you end up in Oregon”
WTF? How many of you wankers have ever launched a start up that ending up paying out one slim dime.
Probably 99% of the US population *never* sees a $400K check. So maybe the word for people that end up in OR is not “lazy” but rather “smart”.
Ducks and Beavers football is your bar for achievement and excellence?
Yikes.
I mean, both are respectable programs, especially UO in recent years.
But when’s the last time either won a national championship?
People out here are funny. They think they play big-boy football. In SEC country, UO/OSU are medium-sized, middle-of-the-pack programs.
Which bolsters your (and Duin’s) point, of course.
“Probably 99% of the US population *never* sees a $400K check. So maybe the word for people that end up in OR is not “lazy” but rather “smart”.”
Yeah, I guess they may be smart in a way. But if you want to grow your economy you need the kind of people who will shoot for the $400 million.
“People out here are funny. They think they play big-boy football. In SEC country, UO/OSU are medium-sized, middle-of-the-pack programs.”
Here’s my rebuttal:
University of Oregon 48, Tennessee 13
The “national championship,” BTW, is a joke and will remain a joke until there’s a real playoff system.
Dear H. Bruce,
It is not that we are accepting mediocracy, but many of us believe that success should be measured by our relationships and experiences. If you think we should all define success by the accumulation of money and material goods, then I suggest you may be happier back in California. Otherwise, you should stop trying to mold Oregon to fit your vision. My desire to spend time with my family and friends rather than my coworkers and my efforts to build relationships rather than chase the almighty dollar does not make me lazy or appathetic. You can go back to california, or you can stay here and continue to criticize us. It doesn’t matter which you choose, because the vast majority of us, don’t care what you think.
Scott: Hey dude, back in 1985 I took a job at one-quarter the salary I was making to move to Bend so my family and I could get out of the Silicon Valley rat race and enjoy small-town life, so don’t give ME your self-righteous lectures about “chasing the almighty dollar.” If “the almighty dollar” was what motivated me I wouldn’t be here. As far as that goes, if “the almighty dollar” was what motivated me I never would have gone into journalism.
What I’m saying is that Oregonians shouldn’t embrace mediocrity and scorn people who are ambitious and then be surprised when the state’s economy sucks.
“People out here are funny. They think they play big-boy football. In SEC country, UO/OSU are medium-sized, middle-of-the-pack programs.”
Here’s my rebuttal:
University of Oregon 48, Tennessee 13
Unfortunately for this Vol fan UT is not the best representative of the SEC this year. Hmmmmmm. U of O vs Alabama?????????
Loubelle: Oh, well, I thought the claim was that the SEC was so overwhelmingly powerful that no Pac 10 team belonged on the same field with any of ’em.
U of O vs. Alabama? I’d love to see that one.
When you die at 50 from working 80hrs a week. I will be still having sex with my wife at 80. Thats what Oregon gets you.
In a country that subsidizes high fructose corn syrup and struggles with the terrible health consequences, Oregon is a hotbed of healthy farms and physical activity. Go claw your way to the top of the pyramid and order people around somewhere else, seriously, or appreciate the fact that we’d rather have trees than the paltry number of dollars the global economy decides they’re worth.
Tony: That’s funny. I’m already 64 and I never worked 80 hours a week in my life.
BTW how old will your wife be when you’re 80?
HBM, really your topics are pointing to a disturbing melancholy pattern. First you pooh-poohed Facebook’s expansion into Central Oregon (some months ago); then you couldn’t find anything positive for Bend being ranked number 7 nationally among small cities for the best city to have or start a business; and now you agree with Duin that Oregon is the mecca for slackers and lollygaggers. There must be something that keeps you here. Heaven only knows what it could be.
We all know that the liberal mindset (all too pervasive in western Oregon) is that there must be an equality of outcome rather than an equality of opportunity. That’s exactly what you are saying in the last couple of lines in your response to Scott above.
So I say get rid of awarding “participation ribbons” and recognize, reward, and encourage INDIVIDUAL achievement.
I think citing teams of imported football players as a supposed exception is disturbing on a couple of levels: (1) Football is cheap and easy compared to the cost of rebuilding Oregon’s now-mediocre (a generous assessment) colleges, so that’s the choice we’ve made as a state. (2) Other states that have historically made the same choice at the expense of education — Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma — offer grim models for Oregon’s future.
“We all know that the liberal mindset (all too pervasive in western Oregon) is that there must be an equality of outcome rather than an equality of opportunity. That’s exactly what you are saying in the last couple of lines in your response to Scott above.”
WTF???? How in hell did you manage to infer that from “Oregonians shouldn’t embrace mediocrity and scorn people who are ambitious and then be surprised when the state’s economy sucks”??? That is the exact OPPOSITE of saying “there must be an equality of outcome.” You need to read what I actually write, “critic,” instead of reading your presumptions about me into it.
HBM: I thought I was actually agreeing with you. I don’t believe you’re of the typical “liberal mindset” only a bit left of libertarian.
Re: Oregon 48, Tennessee 13
Congrats … the Ducks whipped the worst Tennessee football team in three or four decades.
If you wanna see UO v. ‘Bama, you’re crazy. ‘Bama would choke the life out of the Ducks.
You should be rooting for Auburn to pull out the Iron Bowl and win the SEC championship game. They can’t stop anyone, and the Ducks would have a field day.
But “Bring on ‘Bama”? Careful what you wish for.
“Congrats … the Ducks whipped the worst Tennessee football team in three or four decades.”
Yeah, I knew there’d be some excuse. I thought every team in the SEC was supposed to be unbeatable except by another SEC team.
“But “Bring on ‘Bama”? Careful what you wish for.”
Looks like I won’t get my wish because the Ducks will be in the national championship game and ‘Bama won’t.