Square Peg

     
You may be right
I may be crazy
But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for
Turn out the light
Don't try to save me
You may be wrong for all I know
But you may be right      
                       Billy Joel 1980

          A while back, I wrote an article acknowledging that I didn’t feel like I was an expert in anything.  Happily, I can now report that I was wrong.  I’m an expert in one thing: being the minority opinion.

Like an insidious disease, this realization snuck up on me.  When I was young, in my teens and 20s, I was too self-absorbed to really think about what was going on in the rest of the world.  Over time though, slowly, I started to realize that my beliefs were running against the mainstream. You know this from my blogs; on virtually every major (and minor) issue, my thinking is different.  Just to name a few:

Politics - Libertarian vs. Republican or Democrat;
Religion -  modern orthodox Judaism, a minority within a minority;
Diet - low carb vs. balanced;
Finance - don’t get me started.  Austrian vs. Keynesian economics, strong currency being a  positive, deflation being a good thing, etc.
Government - virtually none.

          You get the idea.  The point is not to try and convince people that I’m right, because I don’t care, and as there’s over 7 billion people in the world, it wouldn’t work anyway. Uniformity of opinion is impossible and changes over time.

          No, the point is to give solace and advice to the other sad, sad square pegs in a round world, whose brain doesn’t turn off.  As an expert in being a square peg, I feel uniquely qualified to give advise on this topic.

  The first bit of advice is, you better damn well be right.  If you are going against the consensus, and you’re wrong, you’re not alternative, you’re not edgy, you’re not clever. You’re just an idiot.  Why? Think about what you’re saying.  Many, many smart people have come before you, and together they have come to consensus on a topic.  The heavy lifting has already been done.  You’re confident/arrogant enough to think that the majority is wrong and you’re right.  If you’re going out on a limb like that, you better know what you’re doing.

  Now the solace part.  Life is more exciting on the right side of the bell curve.  Almost by definition successful people are in the minority.  Don’t be intimidated, or depressed, if you think differently.  There are more Camrys sold than 488 Spiders, but that doesn’t mean it’s a better car.  All the people that you truly respect (respect, not necessarily like), whether you’ve met them or not, I’m guessing they think differently than the masses.  Think about it.

  So hang in there.  You may be right.  Maybe eating fatty foods is good for you.  And the US will be in a recession within two years.  And camp’s dangerous.  And Van Morrison is as brilliant as Beethoven.

Or you may be crazy.  Eventually you, and I, will find out.  

  Have a good night everyone.

JR