Outback sounds somewhat misanthropic and overly judgemental in his opinion. Frankly, naive and idealistic. His is an opinion, nonetheless.
There's nothing wrong - rather, to the contrary - with being average, socially adjusted, law abiding citizen and a member of a society who is respecting the norms and understanding duties and obligations of a social contract.
In fact, being an average is just fine. Average citizens are a backbone of a properly functioning society - all those coal mine workers, doctors, engineers, customer service assistant, accountants and teachers are folks who through their "boring" 9 till 5 jobs and paying taxes deserve just as much respect as an accomplished film director, actor or a musician. In fact, I can make a case that the former bring more value to the society, than the latter. It's too much individualistic U.S. driven (through pop-culture, mostly) propaganda that being "special" makes you "better" person than others. Some boring, day in, day out toilsome jobs led to seminal and incredible advances - think transistor, for example. It spawned revolution the world over worth, in economic terms, trillions of dollars of yearly economic output. Whereas the superficial "unique" people, usually of artistic type, created, what - a film worth an Oscar? Give me a break. Only on the backbone of the humdrum activities and "boring" work of an average citizen we have been able to keep progress apace, develop the technology, and the sciences which led to today's prosperity.
One should not look outside in order to pursue jobs, hobbies or other activities just because a populace at large finds activities X, Y, or Z en vogue at some particular place in particular time - that's a recipe for disaster. Subterfuge went down a path of achieving more in a particular domain, than most men. His choice is congruent with evolutionary directive. He's consistent and persistent in his goal. Whether the goal is to be interpreted as average man's endeavour or not, is irrelevant. That is not to say, a critical and introspective approach to oneself is of little value. Clearly, there are better and worse decisions and actions to be taken along the path to the established goal. There's almost always a space for improvement in domains one deems as important to oneself. But being average person and taking actions so as to reach a goal (however statistically deviating from the norm) are not mutually exclusive. After all, it's a matter of perspective (or dear I say, relativity) - once everyone climbs Mount Everest, it won't be a unique fit anymore. An average, at best, me thinks.
There's nothing wrong - rather, to the contrary - with being average, socially adjusted, law abiding citizen and a member of a society who is respecting the norms and understanding duties and obligations of a social contract.
In fact, being an average is just fine. Average citizens are a backbone of a properly functioning society - all those coal mine workers, doctors, engineers, customer service assistant, accountants and teachers are folks who through their "boring" 9 till 5 jobs and paying taxes deserve just as much respect as an accomplished film director, actor or a musician. In fact, I can make a case that the former bring more value to the society, than the latter. It's too much individualistic U.S. driven (through pop-culture, mostly) propaganda that being "special" makes you "better" person than others. Some boring, day in, day out toilsome jobs led to seminal and incredible advances - think transistor, for example. It spawned revolution the world over worth, in economic terms, trillions of dollars of yearly economic output. Whereas the superficial "unique" people, usually of artistic type, created, what - a film worth an Oscar? Give me a break. Only on the backbone of the humdrum activities and "boring" work of an average citizen we have been able to keep progress apace, develop the technology, and the sciences which led to today's prosperity.
One should not look outside in order to pursue jobs, hobbies or other activities just because a populace at large finds activities X, Y, or Z en vogue at some particular place in particular time - that's a recipe for disaster. Subterfuge went down a path of achieving more in a particular domain, than most men. His choice is congruent with evolutionary directive. He's consistent and persistent in his goal. Whether the goal is to be interpreted as average man's endeavour or not, is irrelevant. That is not to say, a critical and introspective approach to oneself is of little value. Clearly, there are better and worse decisions and actions to be taken along the path to the established goal. There's almost always a space for improvement in domains one deems as important to oneself. But being average person and taking actions so as to reach a goal (however statistically deviating from the norm) are not mutually exclusive. After all, it's a matter of perspective (or dear I say, relativity) - once everyone climbs Mount Everest, it won't be a unique fit anymore. An average, at best, me thinks.
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My Adventures in Game updates on the go: twits by Max Detrick
Unbowed. Unbent. Unbroken.
I don’t ever give up. I mean, I’d have to be dead or completely incapacitated.
-- Elon Musk