Part 2: Overcrowding
I am not going to go into the usual concerns associated with the word: the impending doom of dwindling resources; the inevitable competition between various human populations; the destruction of habitats and species; the potential for catastrophic epidemics; the wide-spread loss of reproductive drive in those modern human societies, where religious beliefs are not a major factor influencing reproductive choices. All these issues have been studied, documented, debated, and addressed in literature, educational films, and big screen productions.
One aspect of over-population I have never seen addressed is the devalument of geniuses.
Awe-inspiring leaders, daring reformers, great poets, fabled military minds, legendary explorers, brilliant scientists, revered prophets, extraordinary beauties, men and women or inhuman strength and endurance, saints, saviors, geniuses of all sorts and fashions – where are they today?
They still exist, no doubt. Statistically speaking, there are more of them alive now than there ever was before. If we are to estimate the population of ancient Athens at roughly 250,000, and claim that one super-human athlete per generation was born in Athens, than, estimating current world population at 7,125 billion, roughly 28,500,000 super-human athletes are alive today!
How many of those can you identify right now? How many Nobel Prize winners do you know by name? Me, personally – less than a dozen.
The modern geniuses are all around us, I am certain of it. But they are lost amidst the crowds. Diamonds are only precious if there is a shortage of them. They are worthless in an over-saturated market.
How many Homers, Shakespeares, Jesuses, Napoleons, Aristotles, Darwins, Caesars, Elizabeths, Charlemagnes, Mozarts, Augustuses, da Vincis, Genghis Khans, Galileos, Ciceros, Teslas, Joans of Arc and Bismarcks do we pass every day on the street, never realizing that it was greatness sitting next to us at a local Starbucks? Too many. They go unnoticed and unrecognized, indistinguishable from the multitudes.
The 21st century has created an interesting paradox, where brilliance often goes by unseen, yet those people who would like nothing more than to be left alone find themselves stripped of all privacy. But that’s the subject of the next post.
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Interesting concept.
I would say that exceptional people are often overlooked as in the past, brilliance did not require “formal” qualifications. Genius was allowed to be displayed outside of Ivory Tower institutions.
If you where good, nay, GIFTED in particular fields, you where noticed and brought forward, allowed to flourish and lauded for your talents.
Now, unless you have been discovered in early childhood, had your entire educational history and career choices carefully mapped out to utilise your inherent skill, you are considered unqualified and a threat to those within the institution.