‘’Every unallied general is no greater than a weak and tepid recruit.”
By Jimanze Ego-Alowes
TUE, JUN 23 2020-theG&BJournal- Why does mediocrity thrive? A delectable writer asked. I thought the answers were self-evident. However if it is not, here are some details to help us all. And it is simple.
Mediocrity strives because it has the numbers, the bigger numbers. All life is contention, is dualist, is dialectical. In one instance, it is quantity against quality, in another, it is the male and feminine in their game of wits, and yet in another, it’s numbers in play against genius. One may recall that the Chinese built a whole philosophy out of this duality – Daoism. And to the best of our knowledge, nobody has contradicted them. Life is a dualist gambol.
If we now returned to mediocrity, one thing is certain. It is that numbers are not entirely useless. Numbers count. In fact, on counting as procedure in itself, we are all condemned to depend on numbers. That is numbers are the very framework we count with. And, most times life is nothing other than a numbers game, or perhaps even, a numbers racket.
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In fact, were it not for numbers, mathematics, the queen of the sciences, would not have amounted to much. In other words, we are as mathematical, as scientific, and thus as developed, as the numbers we play with.
Numbers or mathematics explain why out there in life, mediocrity is a greater force than genius. Simply put, mediocrities have the numbers; they alone command the majoritarian votes, rule the parliaments, even purpose to rule the waves, if the devil will let them.
At this juncture, one can say the matter is simple, is numerical. It is that every man votes for his kind. And that is all what democracy, what representative governance, comes to. So, by lore, only mediocrity may rule. This follows the singular logic that representative rule, that is democracy, demands we vote for our kind. Anyway, have you ever seen any genius in power?
Geniuses? Geniuses are at best lone wolves, they can’t club together. They don’t even have the numbers to so do. So they are bound to lose out, one after the other, each without alliance partners. ”All victory,” Mother A’Endu says, rightly even if not righteously, ”is in alliances. Every unallied general is no greater than a weak and tepid recruit.”
But the genius of mediocrity, no puns intended, is in the herd, in their overwhelming and indestructible herd of numbers, and even numbness. In other words, in the end: Mediocrity counting on numbers alone must rule the rest of us, not excluding pure geniuses. Thus, if you are a genius, the smart bet may be on you self-willingly submitting to being ruled by mediocrity. If you want to rule, the smart choice is to stall further self-development and remain a mediocrity. That’s a ”mathematical” axiom, you may erect your universe on it.
That’s all we have to say for now, till in your genius you become humble enough to be ruled by mediocrity. That humility is reverential of God. God’s gambit is in creating many of them, the mediocrities, like He did the beetles. Or will you now fight God or kill off the many species of beetles? Will you?
Lest we forget, hope you do remember Fatai Rolling Dollars? He put things even more musically: Ekere si number wa/we pass them by numbers. This is the iron lore to winning in the great game that is life. All else is in humor. Note Bene:https://punchng.com/why-does-mediocrity-thrive-2/
Jimanze Ego-Alowes (PhD) is Author and public commentator
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