THE TROUBLE WITH BEING PROFOUND

Profound insight or talent are easily dismissed by words like "genius". But what is life like for the person whose insight or talent is consistently profound? The obvious answer is "Lonely."

Last evening I went to a local tree-lighting event for the Christmas season. Perhaps 1,000 people assembled in the village up the street. Streets were closed off and the throng massed in front of a park where Christmas lights and decorations have been assembled and arranged for weeks. This is a local tradition, rooted in the Italian-American history of my area. 

We stood against a commercial building, slightly elevated above the street across from the park. My position afforded me a good view of the crowd in the street. The event was aimed at the small children there. They comprised half the crowd. 

Peter pointed out one toddler to me. The tiny boy was far ahead of his age. He was walking upright with his mother at an age when most children are bobbing and weaving into the arms of anxious parents. The intelligent mother was giving the boy his own space to walk unassisted in the crowd, where he could easily be knocked over or trampled. His mother was very vigilant from her slight distance. But the boy navigated his way between the moving forest of adult legs without a hitch. Remarkable.

This exceptional child was alone the whole time. Yet he was smiling and relishing his mobility. His mother beamed with deep pride as she guarded him discreetly. 

My mind extrapolated this child's future. It is possible he will become an example to other children. He may become an explorer, an innovator, an entertainer. How much of whatever he becomes will be based in this early independence and mobility? 

Darker thoughts followed as I observed a group of prepubescent boys who were there without adults. They were positioned near the center of the crowd. Their presence was obvious because they were shouting, pushing each other and filming each other with smart phones. Their shared discomfort with being themselves was palpable. The crowd had formed a vacant margin around them. 

Could this become the future of the independent toddler? Will he remain strong and ahead of his own years? Or, will he get sucked into the hormonal hell of adolescence, shared by equally disturbed peers? Will he become crude and rough to fit in? 

It gets harder and harder to be unusual with age. Modern Leftists would like to legislate this fact of life away on the one hand, yet practice the very stifling peer-pressure which makes confident individuality impossible. Losing that confident individuality and its free expression is detrimental to any society. In an effort to make society "safe" for all, the contemporary Left is on a path to witch trials, prosecuted against anyone who expresses intelligent and cogent objection to their norms. 

A tragic failing of the human species is its obsession with mass reproduction over individual nurturance and encouragement of those in the species who represent its best qualities. Modern capitalism has accelerated this trend. It offers the myth of universal entrepreneurship without providing the universal availability of the environment which would produce this reality. Malleable and dispensable workers are necessary to capitalism. Mesmerized consumers are as well. 

Independent speech and thought at any level becomes profound in an atmosphere of homogeneous mediocrity and conformity. This gradually lowers the standard of what constitutes true genius. In turn, this makes those who possess true genius less visible and more isolated. If the mediocre warrants a trophy, what prize or incentive remains for the exceptional?