- Joined
- Oct 17, 2006
- Messages
- 59,366
- Reaction score
- 27,052
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
Alright. So I couldn't care less about Joe the Plumber. The guy is a nobody. He'd be working for me 3 months ago. Irrelevant to the grand scheme things for the most part. What I've taken issue with is this almost cult like fixation a lot of people have with the fact that he's 'Average Joe'. Like average is something to be proud of. So it's got me wondering. Do you strive to be average? For as long as I can remember my parents told me never to settle for less then the best. They never told me to be 'like everybody else' and follow the norm. Likewise millions of parents from liberals to conservatives, from republicans to democrats tell their kids to be 'the very best they can be'. It's not a party thing. It's just the human need to be better then the rest. But then somewhere on the political front 'average' becomes what people want. What people look up to. We don't look to 'average' when making foreign policy decisions. We don't look to average Joe when it comes to energy problems, the economy or scientific achievements. Who do we look to? People who strive to be the best in their fields. We don't even look towards average when it comes to what food we want, who we want to be with etc etc. Kids don't try to get 2.7s in their GPAs. Do you want what is 'average' for your kid? We look for that which fits us best. So what exactly is the big deal with being average if it's not something we strive to be or even care about for the most part?