"With all respect to your personal feelings, you are a genius and therefore common property."
Let that quote sink in for a second. Just by being intelligent, Newton/Kilton argued that Mobius was required to sacrifice his own feelings and desires for the purpose of helping others. Where I can kind of see where he's coming from, it does seem really wrong to look at a person this way. But, if you think about it, it's actually quite common. Even if we stick with just careers in STEM, think about how many of them spend their lives slaving away in hopes that they might make some discovery that will change the world or at least the way something works. Their lives are dedicated to making the world a better place...or at least a more advanced one.
Moving beyond just people in the STEM careers, think of any kind of genius or prodigy that has ever been discovered. They are exploited for the thing that makes them special and then spend the rest of their lives being analysed to figure out what about them makes them special so it can possibly be replicated in the future. They have no choice in how their lives pan out purely for having a knack (okay, a little more than a knack) for something.
And finally, the thing that struck me first when I read this quote in the text: celebrities. Main difference I guess would be that *most* of them put themselves in the situation to be the object of the spotlight, but a lot of times they're personal beliefs and opinions are constantly under a microscope. Further in this quote it says "It is your duty to open the door for us." Since we don't have access to the glamorous lives of celebrities, we follow their lives and live vicariously through them. Though seemingly harmless, when they do something that we wouldn't do/don't approve of, the public starts to turn against them, purely for being themselves. I'm not saying I condone most of the stunts that celebrities pull (especially the ones of our generation), but it did seem to really stick out to me with this quote that since there's something special about them (they're famous for something, right?) they are now "common property" and their personal feelings are pushed to the side for the sake of public appearance.
As an extension to your analysis, the same quote can also be used on children with famous parents. Instead of choosing to be famous, they are borne into the spotlight, regardless of their preference. They lose their basic right of growing up as a normal kid because they are either constantly haunted by paparazzi or being compared to their parents' talents, which could lead to multiple psychological issues like low self esteem.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting, and while I took time to ponder the quote, I didn't take as long as you did, by the looks of things. It's interesting to think that people can be common property purely for being talented or famous. I also agree with the potential danger of psychological damage as a result of endless comparison to those who /do/ have the knacks.
ReplyDelete