Skip to main content

Leader of the free world

What the heck does that mean? I find this line of thinking oxymoronic. (I am not sure if oxymoronic is good use of the word or if it is even a legit word). But you get the idea (perhaps you do not).

I have heard the journalists assign this term to the President of the US. First of all if there is a free world it is incongruent to have leaders and followers - they would all be free without bondage or subservience.

Also it is mildly hypocritical to declare that we have a good idea of what a free world is since such a notion is entirely utopian. We think we know everything there is to know of global cultures and forms of government that rule across the world and believe that a free world is the only sustainable world out there and want to publish that idea on non believers.

Trying to impress that concept through speeches and propaganda is not good marketing. It should work somewhat along the lines of how Apple makes people into believers of its product. i.e. create a need where there is none and make people want it so bad they cannot think of an alternative. Let the believer spread the good word. The concept is called the 'Referral Business'.

Personally I think people get the governments they deserve and a majority vote drives the singular outcome. If the outcome is unfavorable where the majority indeed thinks differently then change does happen when the consensus builds beyond the tipping point. Think critical mass. Think Egypt revolution etc.

There are those that cannot accept a majority vote (and therefore likely are the minority) but have to live with it as part of a broader society. This philosophy also rules every decision we make in our daily lives - which job we do to earn a paycheck to the type of person we live with (we always have a choice).

It does help to have freedoms to pursue one's interest and the US definitely fosters and provides for a lot through various strata of society with some minor aberrations but that does not make our President the leader of the free world.

Comments

  1. The man living on the street (literally) is the freest of them all, in any society.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...