![]() |
The infamous bell curve |
Think about it. There is a book on the shelf that I put in my living room and fill with books to impress people called Last in Their Class which is all about the people who fell on the far left side of the curve while they were at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point but whom decided to skip the entire middle portion of the bell curve and go straight to the right side once they got out. Here are a bunch of guys who were certifiably the worst in their college class. Dead last. Bottom of the list. As far left on the bell curve as one can get. Yet here they are idolized in a book that is on a shelf meant to impress. As far as I can tell, there is no literature about people who have finished in the middle of their class at any institution.
![]() |
The South Park goth kids think you are a conformist. |
You're average, Britta Perry. You're every kid on the playground who didn't get picked on. You're a business casual potted plant; a human whites sale. You're VH1, RoboCop 2, and Back to the Future 3. You're the center slice of a square cheese pizza. Actually, that sounds delicious. I'm the center slice of a square cheese pizza. You're Jim Belushi.
- Abed Nadir
Now, this television show's longstanding hatred of Jim Belushi aside, the point here is that poor Britta is being skewered for being normal. Because apparently being at the top of the bell curve is a bad thing.
I disagree. I don't think that there is anything wrong with being normal. With being one of the giant slice of those of us who inhabit the area in the middle of the bell curve spectrum. It is great to be an exceptional occurrence, but being the norm is okay. We have for some reason set up this who idea by which we are all told that we are individuals, snowflakes, uncommon occurrences, yet we all long to fit in and sit on top of the bell curve. Even the nonconformists hang together. We rove in packs - it is in our DNA. But packs can't be all made up of examples of the ends of the bell curve, it just doesn't work. Someone always ends up on the top of the bell curve. And I think that is a wonderful place to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment