Icons are rightly called icons as they start with a belief," I can"and when in time they end up as "I-cons", they start conningthemselves and the rest of the world. The greatness in every human being is not being explored byone and all because of the blinding adulation of modern day Icons inevery field from Obama to Woods. Woods for instance had his iron intoo many fires, and was putting in greens and blondes, to use agolfing expression. Unless, the image of these icons are destroyed inthe common man's psyche, we will not wake up to the latent greatnessthat lies in each of us. A few icons like our own Sachin do hold uptheir end but these are more the exception than the rule. Most of themprove that they not only have feet of clay but libidos and minds ofclay. True it is cynicism but realistic cynicism meant to liberate thecommon man from the modern opium of the masses.
"Topper syndrome" or icon syndrome ensures that the graph of human performance is highly skewed with just one or a few people at the top of the graph with most struggling on the slope up and many sliding down the other side- While we can never have a completely flat curve, taking our focus off icons and focussing on our own inner greatness or potential as you would prefer to call it and save us the disappointment and disillusionment or deception of millions and it will ensure a less skewed distribution of human excellence as well as wealth. Building on the foundation of one over-invested skill or attribute is in fact what leads to the toppling of the icon. It was interesting to see the conception of the early Tamil thinker's 133 feet statue at Kanyakumari- the sculptor has built the statue on a solid base 38 feet high and the remaining 95 feet of the person of Thiruvalluvar occupies the space above. The sculptor's concept coincides with the division of the Thirukurral into three sections, Virtue, Wealth and Pleasure with the solid base or foundation or pedestal coinciding with Ethics or Virtue and atop that is built the sections comprising Wealth and Pleasure embodied in the body of the thinker. My thesis is Value is Competence and my argument is that very often these so called icons have attributes or achievements far beyond their competence or the ability to handle it.
