The Elegance of Being A Nobody

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The Fox and the Grapes is one of Aesop's most known fables. In the story, a hungry Fox is trying to reach for the grapes hang up in a vine. Unable to reach them, it responds to them 'I bet you weren't even ripe. Probably sour as well'. This story is important because it is the main argument against the statement made in this post's title. More or less, people tend to speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain.

Being a somebody, involves rising above the crowd. It means that for any given human endeavour, the individual is called to surpass his peers in order for them to receive acknowledgement. We have demonstrated throughout the ages that whoever remained in history was definitely a someone who did something better that everyone else, or at least, appeared to do so.

Delving into the realm of actual accomplishments can be a real daunting task since the human endeavours are mostly collaborative. The entirety of our history is small pet projects that when come together reveal a much bigger accomplishment. Often those who became somebodies took over from previous fellas only to add the final cherry on the pie, at the right moment and time.



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This brings us to the first and foremost aspect of the nobody's elegance. We might be falsely convinced that people like Einstein or Tesla or Curie changed the history of humankind but this is not true. Before these notable figures, a lot of nobodies crafted small theories, papers and ideas that helped those final recipients to become a "somebody".

It is a statistical fact, when we say that most people would be nobodies. Such is the nature of our perception in human societies. The fox and the vine fable fits nicely here but it fails to mitigate the entire story's sentiment. Aesop might grasped the turmoil of most humans, questioning their place and role in society. Aristotle might have argue with him about the beauty of watching the world go by without being democratically acknowledged.

The trap of being a somebody is that the individual becomes a slave to the crowd that also wants to become a somebody (often by association). The crowd is the only one that can grant approval and thus the somebody needs to appeal to specific needs and desires. In other words, the somebody is the democratic approved persona of most people's vague and ovegeralised wishes. Since most people don't know what they want, they find the answer in the face of the one who wants to stand above everyone else. It almost serves as a self fulfilling prophecy.

This is not by any means a nihilist vibe. We all strive to survive and we do it in different ways. Nonetheless, this might serve as a word of caution for those who have bought a bit too much into the cultural narrative, in ways that it becomes an obsession to be famous. If we are trying to accomplish something in order to become the next model in the catwalk of life then we are doing it elegantly.

We are not stand alone creations. Every single gene and thought in our heads is the amalgamation of countless others that existed long before us. We are all nobodies cruising the planet for a short period of time until our genes and thoughts become the vessel for the next passenger.