The Taxi Guru

How do ideas spread? One person at a time.
I can't always make reality carry out my ideas. But I can make stories.

The Taxi Guru

"most people are sheep. and there's nothing wrong with that on its own. their role is to stabilize society. they fall in the middle of the statistical distribution.

but some people are on the outskirts of that distribution. their role is to move society towards something different than what it currently is.

There are always people like this. Even when the society does not want to or is not ready to change, a small percentage of the population has the duty to push the collective towards their direction.

The innate nature of this individual is not by his choice, but actualizing his nature is a choice he makes. He can shut off his true nature and pretend to be one of the sheep. Or he can stand outside the general population and act upon his own intentions against the conventional behavior of the general population.

For an individual on the outskirts, however, this is nearly impossible. To function he must meet his individual needs that are too far removed from societal average to conform to its general behavior.

The portion of the population near the edge but not at the edge is fairly large and if they are within reach of the median many people choose to blend in with sheep. These are the people who can be swayed by those on the outskirts when the time and situation arises to move society forward to a change. These are also the people who give the core of sheep a measure of flexibility in maintaining equilibrium, to be resilient to local shock or disturbances.

True sheep do whatever their neighbor does. So having pure sheep is a very unstable stationary point. Any disturbance to the system, and all the sheep crumble along with their neighbors because nobody can figure out what to do on their own in a situation slightly different from the one they are currently in. In this sense, a pure sheep is purely a conceptual abstraction like a geometric circle or square, but it is approximated fairly well with objects that exist in reality.

On the other hand, having a skewed distribution that favors the outskirts with few sheep in the center produces conflict, instability, and disorder. In this society, being a neutral sheep is highly unfavorable, since you get killed in the crossfire between two opposing groups in a no-man's-land that offers no protection from either opponent. So this distribution is highly unsustainable, and will split into two separate societies with more Gaussian features and two cores of sheep that are separated from each other. The opposing groups may end in violent resolution, with the larger group completely eliminating all population of the smaller group. Or more commonly, stealing the sheep of the other, absorbing this core population into its own and killing off the outlying opposition population.

Peaceful change can occur. When outskirt dwellers gain prominence and they swell the population of near-sheep to follow its behavior. This usually requires the society be "ready" for change. This could be advent of new technologies, environmental changes in nature, the growth in size of a population to a critical mass, a similar decrease, or other situational factors that exert external pressure on a society.

It's like the outside world pushes a society towards paying attention to what the guys on one side of the distribution's outskirts are doing. And the near-sheep shift over to a position that is more to their natural intentions, they populate that space where formerly only a few outskirt dwellers resided. The core sheep follow, then the rest of the population from the other side of the distribution shifts over to whatever extent they can or they dwell on the outskirts.

With changes in society, the definition of the normal average man and the outcast alternate between time periods. What was acceptable and commonplace and encouraged before becomes shunned and isolated and dismissed centuries later, and vice versa.
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The taxi guru is a hyper-reality, in which I explore the question: how do I influence society with my ideas?

Do I write a book? But without fame, who would read it, or even publish it?
Do I do something Great? Call attention to myself with some specific achievements? Then people would want to hear what I have to say, so I'm able to share my thoughts on a larger assortment of issues?
Do I create art, or music to entertain people? Do I become a comedian? Do I write beautiful songs or connect with people on an emotional aesthetic level?
Do I teach? Do I do community work? Do I use my local personal interactions to make a small difference? Do I parent my children?

So the inspiration behind writing a story about "the taxi guru" is about spreading ideas. And the proposed plan is to do it one person at a time, one cab ride at a time, until fame spreads about a knowledgeable person who drives taxis until people come to take Taxi rides just to hear wisdom and advice from the guru.

I mean, it's logical enough to be believable. If not practical, it is plausible, in an alternate universe. Reality is stranger than people's imaginations can come up with.

But again with the thing about ideas. To actualize the reality of it would be putting the rest of my life towards a few steps in that direction, and there's just so much more conceptually I want to get to... rather than stop the thought train, get off, and walk... I would not get to visit the places ahead of me before I die.

At some point, I will want to get off and take a deep look around on foot, but not for colorful knick-knacks and flashy neon signs. And not until I've traveled far enough to look forwards and backwards with equal satisfaction.