What would you rather be?

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-01-22 10:56am

The King of Fools is the King of nothing.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-01-22 11:25am

OK, just to be different, I'll pick "king of fools"

Given my current state of power, fame, wealth, and intelligence, I see the following scenerios:

#1 - Become rockstar/movie star. With screaming fans (ie the fools), money, and influence (ie the king).

#2 - Become a closet genius. Living my current life (ie. common), but add super genius level intelligence. In my spare time I translate ancient Summarian, derive quantum thoery, and solve unsolvable math problems. But, by the rules, I can't (for whatever reason) use this information to become "uncommon".

Which would I choose? Probably #1. Being a closet Einstein would be cool, but its wishing to be something I'm not. I'm perfectly happy with my level of education. If my desire was really #2, I'd be spending all my spare time on taking night courses at university, reading, solving problems, etc... but I'm not so maybe #2 isn't for me. Frankly, I just see myself having more fun with #1.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-01-22 11:29am

I picked the common genius but the King of Fools might not be soo bad...it's worked out pretty well for Hugh Hefner.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-22 12:11pm

A world where genius is common would be a better world than this one. I vote for common genius.

If you want to see a king of idiots, watch Pat Robertson.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-01-22 12:15pm

Darth Wong wrote: If you want to see a king of idiots, watch Pat Robertson.

That is true in so many ways.

UltraViolence83 · Post by **UltraViolence83** » 2003-01-23 03:05am

Oops. I just realized something. If geniuses were common, you wouldn't be called a genius, you would just be a "normal" commoner. Hmm...If I saw that earlier, I could have mentioned you'd just be a normal intellect, and wouldn't see everyone else as a 'genius.'

So, maybe the king of fools is kinda like a person being the boss in a troop of monkeys. (Or fundies.)

...Depends on your point of view, really...

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-01-23 08:49am

UltraViolence83 wrote:Oops. I just realized something. If geniuses were common, you wouldn't be called a genius, you would just be a "normal" commoner. Hmm...If I saw that earlier, I could have mentioned you'd just be a normal intellect, and wouldn't see everyone else as a 'genius.' So, maybe the king of fools is kinda like a person being the boss in a troop of monkeys. (Or fundies.)

...Depends on your point of view, really...

Ya, I think it depends on your point of view.

You could view "king of fools" to be literally a guy on a hill surrounded by drooling pakleds (or fundies), or as in my example, the idol of the "foolish" groupie section of hollywood. Personally, I find the later example appealing. If a bunch of fools want to fund my Beverly Hills mansion... I'm not going to complain.

Enricko · Post by **Enricko** » 2003-01-23 09:58am

When you say genius or fools, it's using OUR own system of references. In the world of genius, even if everybody has an Einstein-level of intellect (and some wisdom too), it would still be a world where your ideas will be discussed without the need to throw your feces in the face of your detractors! Where people would drive with consideration (they know the rules and understand why they are in place).

Being the King of Fools suck eggs!

-Fools are nowhere rich enough to make you wealthy;
-Manservants or slaves could kill you while pourring you a coffee;
-Making love to a fool guaranties the same boring position for the rest of your life (cannot understand the Kama-Sutra);
-All in all, fools don't make good enough minions for your evil-schemes to be accomplished! Everytime you would plan a conquest of something, half your shocktroops will kill themself with their weapons (even if you only gave them wooden spoons), the other half would wanders away for 40 years in the desert!

So: Are still powerhungry enough to be king of fools?

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-01-23 10:31am

Enricko wrote:When you say genius or fools, it's using OUR own system of references. In the world of genius, even if everybody has an Einstein-level of intellect (and some wisdom too)

Its perspective. You could take "common genius" to mean everybody in the world is an einstein, or that you join the local MENSA club, we're you'd be a common genius amoung your local friends.

Using our own system of reference the second choice is the least based on fantasy... not that the first is a wrong view to take, its just a different perspective that might yield a different answer to the question.

-Fools are nowhere rich enough to make you wealthy;

Again, you could consider your "followers" to be drooling idiots, or simply following you for "foolish" reasons. Screaming fans that have posters of you in their rooms, buy every single one of your CDs, and in general worship everything you stand for (which is a foolish way to live life),... can in fact make money, with the key thing being a large volume of poor "peasants" can make you very wealthy.

"A fool and his money are easily parted"

You can then use this money to live your own life seperate from the fools, giving them enough time and effort to keep them loyal. Compared to many 8hr-a-day jobs its not so bad.

What I wouldn't base myself to is being forced to act like a complete fool myself, and be someone who I'm not, like those fundie televangelists.

Enricko · Post by **Enricko** » 2003-01-23 06:36pm

Zoink, okay, I agree with you on the point that it's all a matter of perspective. But my system of reference is the only thing I'll use if someone, out of the blue, asks me to make a choice between the two options.

But in a world where the majority of people are fools or act in a foolish fashion, it would be extremely easy for another individual as intelligent as you to detrones you. You might not even fing enough intelligent bodyguards! A king would become quite paranoid...