Let me offer a caveat here: this is a tongue-in-cheek blog. After completing my doctoral dissertation, I now realize why humor is important. Focusing so much time and energy on one tiny, minute subject will drive anyone crazy, and a sense of humor is eminently necessary for sanity and survival. That’s why so many professors are funny (or at the very least, funny looking).
Yes, I think too many serious blogs can be detrimental to one’s mental health. This is why I am contributing a blog that is slightly silly, mostly over-the-top, and heck, I’m on Thanksgiving vacation so why should I expend my intellectual energy on something which feels like work?
My thesis in this blog: I’m going to sing the praises of the #2 spot. Most people think that the best place to be is #1—the head honcho, the champion, the one on top of the mountain. I’m going to argue how good it is to be #2; the silver medal is the prize to get!
Have you ever noticed how celebrities hate to be hounded by the media? That’s because the benefit of being #1 is the same as the price of being #1: relentless attention. The reason why #2 is good is because you can be excellent without the bother that comes from fame.
Take baseball for example. Before 2004, everyone loved the Boston Red Sox and hated the New York Yankees. Why? Because the Yankees had won 26 World Series championships (that’s 25% of all the World Series in history, fyi). Yankees fans were annoying in their arrogance, and fair weather too (the bar was set so high that if the Yanks didn’t bring home a championship, they were vilified). What an unhealthy atmosphere to work in! Contrast this to Red Sox Nation, where the fans loved the team regardless of how well they did. It took real guts and character to love the Sox. They lost year after year, and still had a loyal fan following. Now, let me qualify this: the Sox were never cellar dwellers. They were always #2, not like the last-place Kansas City Royals. And people loved #2, without the misery that came from being #1 (be perfect, or be deemed a failure). Unfortunately, after 2004, the Yankees and Red Sox flip-flopped in their standings, so I daresay the Sox have sadly become the new Yankees and thus lost their privileged #2 position. If they had only remained where they were, they might have retained their untainted status in the baseball pantheon (the “loveable losers”) which now only belongs to the Chicago Cubs.
To take a personal example, I went to Yale for college. I didn’t even think of applying to Harvard. Why? The awesomeness of being #2, that’s why. No one can look down on you for choosing Yale (unless you’re a snobby Harvardian who thinks everyone else is inferior, and thus my point is proved how annoying it is to be #1), and yet Yalies aren’t the constant focus of attention by the media. We can be quietly good at what we do, and the only time it really backfires on us is when we try to be the President of the United States (yep, #1!) in which case it’s just a royal mess. Need I recount what a disaster the last few Yalies have been as President? That’s because they tried to exceed their #2 mandate. Tsk, tsk.
Here’s an example from the world of music: John Lennon was the face of the Beatles, and Paul McCartney was #2. Well, Lennon was the one who took a bullet, not McCartney. It was more of a status thing for Mark David Chapman to murder John Lennon than it was to take down Paul McCartney. Notice, however, that not only was it better to be McCartney than Lennon (because the former is still alive), but it was better to be McCartney than George Harrison or Ringo Starr (#2 is better than #3 or #4). He had fame without the bullet. However, since the death of John Lennon, Paul McCartney has become the #1 guy, and you see how well that has fared him, with debacles such as Heather Mills. Paul, you should’ve realized how good it was when John was still alive, because you could then be his #2, the wingman to his F-14, the Iceman to his Maverick.
A final example I will take from the world of computing. PC or Mac? Well, obviously PC is far more popular. But ask any Mac user, and they love their computers with an undying loyalty. “Once you go Mac, you can’t go back” as I often hear them say. As someone who recently made the PC-to-Mac switch myself, I have to agree. Macs are beautiful machines, they don’t get viruses, they don’t crash, they are faster, smoother, and more elegant in every regard. It feels good to be part of a small “in the know” minority who believes we have discovered a great treasure that the majority of people out there are sadly ignorant about. However, Mac started making these annoying commercials with the chubby guy playing the dumb PC, and a much cooler dude being the Mac. And, do you know that had a backfiring effect? So many people saw those commercials and actually felt sorry for the PC guy, so that actually ended up being negative publicity for Macs. Again, stick to your #2 guns, Mac, and all will be well. Don’t try to rise above your station. You’re better than PCs and you know it, so just be happy with your “diamond in the rough” position that most people out there are just waiting to discover!
OK, I ought to end here. A tongue-in-cheek blog shouldn’t have the length of a serious article, a rule which I seem to have transgressed already. So in summary, why is it better to be #2 than #1?
-The #2 spot affords you the luxury of being awesome without all the relentless attention. You’re noticed enough, but not too much. No bullets, no paparazzi, no annoying bandwagon people, just quiet excellence.
-The #2 spot allows you to fail occasionally without disappointing the masses. There is no impossibly high bar. People know you’re not the best, so you don’t always have to be. You just have to be excellent most of the time. And that’s a realistically achievable standard.
-The #2 spot is still greatness. We’re not talking about mediocrity here. It may not be the Yankees, but it’s not the Royals. It may not be John Lennon, but it’s not George Harrison. It may not be Harvard, but it’s not Smallville Community College.
But think about this (and this is to end a somewhat silly blog with a somewhat serious application): historically, Christianity thrives best when it’s a minority religion. Persecutions and being small in number help Christians to rely on God and cultivate real faith. Constantinianism (or, Christianity becoming the dominant religion) is the kiss of death for authenticity. It breeds nominalism and/or ugly manifestations of our faith like Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority. Yet another reason why being #2 is better than being #1!
