Since I have invited you to Celebrate Mediocrity, I owe you an explanation.
I selected the term “mediocrity” to contrast with the idea of “greatness,” an expression of The Hive Mind. This is to distinguish the standards of sublimity, excellence, beauty, inspiration, etc. that The Hive Mind decrees as “greatness,” from those excellent, beautiful, inspiring works that I encounter in my real life. I call “mediocre” (with a generous dose of irony) the efforts of commonplace, approachable, knowable humans with lives and experiences the vast majority of us can relate to in an authentic way.
These mediocre expressions of individual humanity are more often the valuable, precious, sacred reflections of individual humanity. When I celebrate mediocrity, I celebrate the sacred.
(Note, I’m using this term only for wholehearted expressions; never in its alternate understanding of halfhearted).
So why use a term like “Mediocrity” anyway?
First, it’s a word that’s a bit startling to see applied to something good. I relish little transgressions like these. Most people require a bit of startling to jar them out of their otherwise conventional and conditioned ways of seeing. I deeply value independent thought and I would enjoy seeing more of it.
Also, the term carries the semantic venom of contempt for the middle ground. I find that a bit disturbing. Statistically the middle ground commands the vast bulk of the normal distribution. ~68% at the core in fact.
So, statistically, that includes YOU. I deeply hope that you do not hold yourself in such contempt!
The Gravity of our Plight
In truth, I am convinced our current condition reflects something far worse than disdain for the 68%. Our globalized Hive Mind (composed of ~ 8.069 Billion People…as of 10/27/23) is dominated by Western Capitalist Industrialized “civilization.” This runaway firestorm of ravenous exploitation and consumption is finely tuned to extract the greatest financial reward from the smallest investment. With our astonishing visibility throughout this vast interconnected web of humanity, the competition for attention is ferocious. And for humans, nothing captures our attention like extremes.
Thus, the Hive Mind roves ceaselessly through the most rarified heights of greatness (and the most terrifying depths of horror). It desperately scours for information in the farthest reaches. What it finds it then broadcasts throughout the humanverse in the battle to command that scarce resource of attention.
I submit that the Hive Mind is only interested in the ~0.2% that represents the very extremes of greatness and horror that lie on the fringes of the distribution, three standard deviations from the vast bulk of 68%. Thus, mediocrity today comprises ~99.7% of everything and everyone.
Chances are extremely high that neither you nor anyone or anything that you dearly love within your own personal manifestation in this physical world is of the slightest interest to the Hive Mind. And yet we willingly allow it to command our attention, program our minds, and govern much of our daily lives.
If you hold mediocrity in contempt, you condemn the vast bulk of human life. Including yourself and everyone and everything that you love. When you celebrate mediocrity, you say ‘Yes’ to life.
Dirtsmith’s Challenge
Groucho Marx once famously joked, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”
As a punchline for laughs, that’s hilarious!
As a genuine expression of a human being’s self-regard, it is heartbreaking.
So I ask you – “Do you really want to belong to a club that would NOT accept you as a member?”
I sincerely hope that you have the self-regard to answer “NO!”
Should you answer “No!”, I ask why you would allow that club any power over your mind or your life. And I invite you to consider this challenge.