Saturday, May 17, 2008

Welcome to Geek Philosophy, Nerd Profundities

Hello, I'm Jacob Martin. I'm a writer and illustrator who dwells on the complex nature of human existence by an undoubtedly unconventional manner: I am a Geek Philosopher, a Nerd. When one looks into popular culture, fantasy and science fiction novels, films and TV shows to discover profundities about the way we look at life and the world around us, there are some who would call you mad. But as Salvador Dali once said, "the only difference between me and a madman is I am not mad".

Hardly a comforting thought, but when you consider the outsider status of the Geek or the Nerd, it really starts to make sense in Dali's own surreal way of viewing things. Geeks and Nerds have been viewed as a threat to the well established social hierarchy ever since high school, but why are we so dangerous?

Being Dangerous: A Geek Philosopher Essay by Jacob Martin

It is because the Geek and the Nerd sees things around them that other people don't see.

And we are dangerous because we think about life where others may find comfort in tabloid magazines, whereas the Geek or Nerd Philosopher might discover the latest threat to human life in the pages of a science fiction novel that nobody else would take seriously.

But it's one thing to be dangerous and quite another to be useful. Knowledge can be useful, because it is dangerous to those who hold power and attempt to restrict the power of others. And because those without power in social standing, Geeks and Nerds, know things that many other people don't, using them to our own advantage, we endanger the High School status of footy players and style queens at the top of the social ladder, because we're the first ones who know how to get skills for future employment, whether we already possess them or we are in the process of learning them at University.

Geeks and Nerds are dangerous. But we are also understanding, sometimes lamenting our lack of a romantic partner or our perpetual virginities, but most of the time we realise that there's more important things in life than getting laid.

We are so used to being taken for granted that we cannot help but help others with their technological troubles, or intellectual struggles. They say that nice guys finish last. This is a fallacy. Geeks and Nerds, when they learn that this popular saying is a lie, become the most dangerous Geeks and Nerds of all, because in understanding and forgiving others their human flaws and their teasing of one back in High School, we remind others that they need to improve themselves. When an enemy is treated with kindness, they grow to fear you. But it is possible for an enemy to become a friend, in the scope of time.

Nice guys do not finish last. They simply take longer to win the race. And that, my readers, is why Geeks and Nerds will always be dangerous.

1 comment:

Mia said...

Nice guys do not finish last. They simply take longer to win the race. And that, my readers, is why Geeks and Nerds will always be dangerous.

That's true. I wish more geeks believed that, though.