The Power of One

The number one by itself has no power.  Any number to the power of one is still that number.  Three Dog Night from the late 60's to the early 70's had a song called, "One is the Loneliest Number."  The number one by itself has no power.  But I have been reading about the power of indifference.  All it takes is one person with an idea.  Or that one person with indifference could be the most powerful in the world.  

If you think about it, the most creative people are just one person.  I read about a woman in Canada who found out that Jeep owners liked to get together, but during Covid they did not.  So, she did what she thought she could do to help Jeep owners keep their community.  So she started putting little rubber ducks on the dashboards of Jeeps.  Now it seems that all over the US and Canada you will see Jeeps with a collection of rubber ducks placed by various individuals who thought that a good idea.  A collection of rubber ducks is now a status symbol for Jeep owners world wide.  

All it took was one person to come up with an idea.  A wise man was sunning himself in the sun when approached by Alexendar the Great.  He wanted the wise man to bow to him for his greatness, but instead the wise man said that his shadow was blocking the sun.  He didn't care who Alexander was because he was more interested in getting some sun.  Alexander realized then than the man was more powerful due to one thing:  The wise man's indifference.

It was then that Alexander learned a great lesson about the power of one.  It might be lonely being indifferent, but a person who spends a lot of time alone does not fear being alone.  If you do not fear being alone you are more powerful than those who seek power.  Who do politicians seek the most?  It's the undecided voter.  They are neither leaders or sheep.  But the power of one can determine the outcome of elections.  No one has enough of a base for elections.  So they seek the one's who have the most power.

Such it is with the power of one.  We might not think that one has power, because it is a lonely number.  Mathematically one has little power.  But if you sought to have the highest number possible to define infinity, all you need to do is add one, and that number is no longer infinite.  Doing this infinitely and you will never get to the end.  I had a professor say, no matter how smart you ate, there is always someone smarter.

Einstein might have had luck on his side, but there was and is probably someone smarter.  You can have the highest SAT score, but you won't be the only one.  You can have the best grades from an Ivy League school, but you aren't the only one.  Maybe Musk is the wealthiest man in the world, but there will be those in poverty who actually believe they are wealthier.  And maybe they aren't wrong.  Wealth buys things, but some wealth is greater than all the gold in the world.  

Maybe they are the only one's who believe they are wealthiest, but if wealth can't buy happiness, who is to say they are wrong?  No, wealth, intelligence, success, status might not make you the best.  Sometimes the best are unknown.  But this is the power of the one.  If one believes in the power of one, their indifference might make them the wealthiest and most powerful of all.  All it takes is for one to believe and the results are limitless.  Regardless.

We can think one is lonely or one has no status or power.  But sometimes one is the most of everything.  I am one guy smoking my Sherlock Holmes pipe by Peterson this morning with Tropical Export by Villiger this morning, believing I am THAT one.  Yes, I could be wrong, crazy, or both.    Sure, there are those with the world at their fingertips, but I might be the center of the universe.  Who is to say I'm wrong?  My beliefs do no harm and are a form of psychological compensation, but for me, it works.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave