Shine on you crazy diamonds

Diamonds are forever because they are rare. We human love owning scarce objects; unfortunately we human ourselves come at a large number – 6 billion. Thus, our society loves to –

Rank the diamonds, count the pearls, and screw the marbles

The society classifies us into diamonds, pearls and marbles through many aspects, or I’ll even say every aspect. Education wise, we always witness the glory of the top scorer; “share the joy” of the handful number of smart students whose results can be labeled as outstanding; as for the majority or the average, we just don’t give a shit about them, do we? (Of course unless it’s your own score……) Lets shift our attention to sports now! There are more than 5000 football clubs in the world, yet the two strongest clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona own approximately 1 billion fans. That’s more than the total number of fans of the bottom 4000 clubs. Our society is like a pyramid that shines brighter and brighter towards the top. My examples can go on and on the whole night, but I guess my point is clear enough:

Put in a nice way, our society adores meritocracy.
Or in a blatant way, shall I quote Charles Darwin “the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals”
Or even in cruel words, the world pretty much doesn’t give a shit about the average.

Ironic yet interesting, the majority of our society loves to engage in a pursuit of “fairness”. WE DEMAND FAIRNESS, WE DESERVE EQUALITY! Indigent folks scream at the world demanding for a satisfying unemployment benefit; feminists claim for equal rights as men have; Students like us beg for moderations to polish our unexceptional grades. On the other hand, we don’t often see rich people complaining that they are rich, nor smart people suggesting that the less intelligent ones ought to take easier papers, not even to imagine women being eager to join the National Service. I admit, it’s just our human nature; we love to ask for more. And because of our imperfect nature, sadly the world can never be “perfect” nor “fair”.

Not all of us are diamonds, but nobody can stop us from pretending as if we are diamonds!

And we gave this phenomenon a beautiful name – the Narrative Fallacy.

Ever thought that you are special? Ever believed that you are luckier than most others? Ever wondered if you are god’s gifted descendant? Perhaps some are, but for most others including myself, I am sorry to say that all along we are just swimming in our own pool of delusion. When you walk into Starbucks and see a gorgeous girl looking at your direction, the first idea that brushes through your mind is probably “she’s glancing at me!” If you are a 4A student sitting in the hall waiting for your result, and you hear that there is an 8A top scorer in your school, you seriously hope that the person is you, even though you should know the probability is just ridiculously miniscule. You love to buy lottery, because you think that one of these days “I am going to be lucky and I will win.” Now here is my question, if there is only one winner, why do you think YOU deserve it more than anybody else?

Perhaps you want to refute, “Hey Douche, I’m not one of those idiots who falsely believe that they are special, I clearly treat myself as an ordinary being as the other people are. It’s not like I am narcissistic or what!” Is it really so or have you just not realized that you do think that you are special. Remember the time you received an email stating that “This is a letter specifically for YOU?” Do you first choose to immerse yourself in the joy of being noticed or do you instantly realize that the very same email is sent to a million other people, thus meaning that you are just another random dude.

Here’s a lame joke:
A man asked a mathematician, “what do you think about the million dollar lottery?”
The mathematician replied “Lottery is stupid!”
… “How if you won the lottery?”
“It is still stupid!”
Then the man said, “Dude, I’m actually here to tell you that you’ve won the lottery.”
The mathematician paused for a second, and he went “WTF++#@@, OMYGAWD!!!”

GREAT, the false joy of believing that he is a diamond caused the mathematician to forget that he cannot win a lottery without buying a lottery at a first place…
Anyway, as much as I have said, I myself often fall into the trap of narrative fallacy, trying to link happenings around me to myself. But GUESS WHAT, doing so actually makes us feel happier. And here I conclude to a long debated argument, “Is false hope also hope?” Should some of us believe that we are diamonds even though we are not?

Real diamonds or counterfeits, the eventual happiness one gains is always real!
So,
Shine on you crazy diamonds, who’s there to say no?