â€Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.â€
Henry Ward Beecher
Should greatness simply be an “I’m better than you†attitude? Through most of our lives, we define ourselves through menial interactions and casual conflict. I have met so-called “great men†i.e. politicians, whose greatness only lies in the power of their title. Many pretend to concern themselves with the rest of us “ungreat†characters while wearing a mask of hierarchy.
I say they are not great until they withstand the test of time and are viewed by the majority of ordinary people (like myself) as great. This can only be done when their actions have surpassed their lifetime. By this reasoning, the great people can never know that they were actually great (they would be dead), and this judgment can only come by those otherwise ordinary folks who, in their own right, probably have no clue as to what greatness is or is not.
Therefore, there is no greatness, and there will never be any.
Sure, great ideas will live on, (such as the invention of the light bulb, or the Rubik’s Cube). However, they exist as concepts founded by those who prescribe to the ideology of change through forward thinking. The ideas were great, the person, not so much.
Are you great? Or just a spoke in the everyday wheel? And, who is to say? You?
“We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.â€
Stewart L. Udall