The mediocrity of the average person is horrifying

[Joseph Maynor]

6 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

Somebody has to be average (by some metric). Isn't it so?

What in what artform?  Context matters.

[Nick_98]

17 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Who is the average person?

That’s a nice question.

You need a calculator to solve that issue  

you need to take the heights of all individuals and divide it by their total

Edited 2 hours ago by Nick_98

[LastThursday]

The metric is the context. The OP says the average person is mediocre, so the metric and thus context here is mediocrity (albeit it is a very broad one). Mediocrity supposedly has an imaginary sliding scale and mostly everyone is in the middle of it, and much fewer are outliers, either exceptional or diabolical.

But you're free to choose any sliding scale you like, the more you choose the harder it is for someone to get the bingo card at being average in all those metrics. By concentrating only on mediocrity the OP is cherry picking, and the category is so broad as to be nearly meaningless.

Edited 2 hours ago by LastThursday

[Joshe]

5 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

Not necessarily. Perhaps it's like playing a game. The recognition that it is a game doesn't prevent you from taking it seriously, fully enjoying it, or mastering it. It just means you know that, in the end, it's an invention - completely meaningless on its own and ultimately unnecessary.

But then you have to do the dishes and walk the dog, so that's that.

Right - the fact that ambition is an illusion is only meaningful if one hasn't already seen through it. But if you haven't seen that yet, when you hear "it's an illusion", you can't help but question if what's driving you is wrong in some way.

This could lead to followers trying to reject their ambition. I was pointing to how that could be bad. 

There's seems to be a sort of purgatory one has to go through before they realize, "yes, it's an illusion, but that doesn't mean it should be rejected." And some might never even make it out of that purgatory. 

But yes, something has to matter. One could choose many different things to matter, ambition being one. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Joshe

[hyruga]

The mediocrity of the self absorbed spiritual hippy is also horrifying.