Rebuttal Against The Trouble With Self-Esteem

“Who are we, and what we will become?” This is one of the most pointless questions we always ask ourselves. We can never foretell our future because we can change the future by ourselves. So where does that common inner motivation come from? Yes, self-esteem has always been our engine that makes us look forward and move on.

However, someone apparently oppose this idea. In Lauren Slater’s essay The Trouble With Self-esteem, she argued that self-esteem is something we should get rid of it. “People with high self-esteem pose a greater threat to those around them than people with low self-esteem and feeling bad about yourself is not the cause of our country's biggest, most expensive social problems.” Slater said that self-esteem could lead us to violence or even kill. In her opinion, “standardized” people are more of a blind and mindless follower in the society. People are not made to be the same; it is important for people to inspire themselves to think they are special. What is self-esteem for? It is for finding the path people want to go and building up the confidence to make dreams come true. Yet sometimes it is not good to just focus on ourselves and lose our way, but if we got good control, this would not be a problem. Slater was just extremalizing the characteristics of confidence and inner-directed people.

We are born to be special – this is an axiom that does not need to be proofed. Maybe you cannot be a “great person”, but you can still be a “better person”. Human’s potential is waiting us to explore with our self-esteem. ''Day by day in every way I am getting better and better.'' Slater sneered at this, and I sneered at her. It is sad that she does not understand what life really is. Life is not about getting onto a tremendous hilltop; life is about getting higher and higher – better and better. And who is going to be our fellow along the way? You are right, self-esteem with be with us and will always be with us.