Sometimes I am on the verge of having a really fantastic idea...that feeling of being just below the verge of a huge realization I still haven't come to takes over my mind and then...I am stuck. A lot of small things happen in peoples lives and then it leads to something...huge. After watching The Social Network, I sit here contemplating how outrageously random life can be. There are those people who spend over half their life investing in their future; be it in years and years of education or working up the corporate ladder from an assistant position to a CEO. On the other side, there exists another group of those people like Mark Zuckerberg, who created a billion-dollar empire in one night, while intoxicated.
I get the feeling that those people who live by the fabrication that is a normative path of life--myself being one of them--are the people who may one day become rich and successful, and may very well believe in themselves and more importantly in their capabilities. I believe I am capable, and I have been taught how to be smart. But how do we define "smart"? The word is usually defined through a series of abstract concepts that between the lines read: be careful. This underlying notion that it is smart to use caution in every decision we make, that it is smart to look both ways, smart to wait, smart not to take risks...this is why the two groups are so unbalanced. There are many more people who accept this definition and related concept of "smart" than those who don't.
It would almost seem as though from day one of public education, we are taught to reach our goals--but those goals must be set early, with parameters, deadlines, and with predictable outcomes. But how are we ever supposed to change the world if we are implicitly told to plan our life through a series of setting systematic, standardized goals? How can you plan to be innovative? To believe that you can create what is inside your head in the outside world? In other words, how can we plan our own ideas?
But there are other people who are not "those people" (who for better or worse are the majority of us), because they do not have fear. More to the point, they do not fear their own ideas.
Now, a lack of fear doesn't always turn them all into self-made millionaires. There are a good many fearless individuals who end up in jail because they are not afraid to kill, steal, lie, or even die themselves. There are fearless people who are drug dealers that rake in thousands of dollars a week and call it their "business". You could call them high-risk entrepreneurs, or you could call them a menace to society. It all depends on where you yourself are situated. When the majority of "those people" judge this group of the Fearless, the difference for them is that they don't care. And as soon as this message is relayed, they can do whatever they want.
Here is an outrageous yet perfect example: George Bush was elected (lets just say to avoid confusion he was fairly elected--both times) without doing or saying so much as one intelligent thing. Then, he took his country against the wishes of the entire world and invaded Afghanistan, followed by waging war in Iraq. Despite absolutely no conclusive evidence of "weapons of mass destruction", he confidently declared that there was, and was re-elected. He somehow managed to get out of taking any real blame for the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression, gracefully finishes his term as President and hands the burden over to President Barack Obama to fix. He is a Democratic President from the first group, the "those people" group. The hard-working, well-educated author uses both logical reasoning and refreshing ethical grounds in his party platform and political agenda. Yet he has struggled probably more than any other President to keep the public's support. Of course with elections coming up, he must be afraid. And yet, it is fear that will lose the support he so desperately needs to uphold.
This example should demonstrate how irrational and borderline insane the world is. And this irrationality works at all levels: court systems, federal and provincial government, driving restrictions--everything. Where law and order have the most difficulty holding firm control is the realm of cyber-space. The Internet is a public sphere and despite massive commercial interest, and disturbing surveillance capacities, I have faith that my generation--and those subsequent--will find a way to keep the Internet just like a rebellious, fearless entity. An embodiment of those people who get things done without fear of being stopped. If an undergraduate student can create what is now Facebook out of sheer spontaneity, than certainly there is a chance that we can all create things, too. We just have to stop being afraid of what happens after we create them.
