Name for me if you could the first president of the United States. How about the first astronauts to step foot on the moon during the first lunar landing? Name for me the first music video played on MTV. Now name the first person you ever kissed, or the first person you ever slept with, or your first car. Could you do it? My guess is that for most people, you could instantly name all of these things (maybe with the exception of the first video on MTV). Now do this, name the second of all of those things. Could you do that? Maybe, but it certainly takes a bit more thought doesn't it?
When it comes to remembering tidbits of history, most of us stop after we have learned the originator. Our minds have a tendency to work that way. It is as if we think "well I know how it started, leave the rest to the pros." But not only are most of us not expected to know the runner-up in most instances, but to NOT know the pioneer is almost considered laughable or even embarrassing. So how does that work? How is it that instantaneous recollection of landmark firsts is required for social acceptance, but knowledge of that which follows makes one appear to be a freshman history major? One of the few exceptions in the history of the world is Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" as performed by Jimi Hendrix. Though even then, the Hendrix version would not exist without Dylan's.
The reason for the common mentality of "learn the first and leave the rest" is actually quite simple. Our nation, as well as all other nations are founded on discovery. Every nation that exists today was born from someone taking exactly one step farther from organized civilization than anyone before them had ever stepped, and once they do this, anyone who follows is merely repeating what has been done. Discovery of the unknown represents progress and advancement, and we tend to be cursed with the belief that anything that has not already been done is impossible. After all, if it were possible, why hasn't anyone already done it? This belief has existed through all remembered time and yet has been shattered for equally as long. Every now and then something groundbreaking happens, and it reminds us all that anything is possible regardless of how unlikely it may seem whether it be Neil Armstrong walking on the moon's surface or Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France. Furthermore, when Americans are involved in historic events, it seems to reassert the general American attitude that we are the best at everything. Whether or not that sentiment is true is certainly subject to debate among anyone outside of the political process, media arena, or the South. In our current age when the entire surface of the earth has been visible by either first hand accounts or via satellite photos and videos, we look to more abstract ways to explore, expand, and advance. We look to medicine. We look to the political process. We look to sports. We look to technology. And yes, we look to the stars to see what we can do, where we can go, and what we will find next. In this world, to look to the future is to look to the next big discovery and therefore to the next proof of the spirit, potential and limitless imagination of mankind.
But what is it about the followers of history? What is it about the world's silver and bronze medal winners? How did "Saved By the Bell" reach such massive popularity while "Saved By the Bell The New Class" was an abysmal failure in terms of cultural impact even with Screech? What is it about those who "stand on the shoulders of geniuses" that we find so forgettable? Isn't it true that the vast potential of discoveries is not truly tapped until long after the pioneer has gone? Yes, but the difference is that anyone who was not the first is forever in debt to the first for opening the door. The pioneer makes the broader point that anything is possible even if they don't have the full ability or the foresight to uncover the full ramifications of their discovery which are in themselves limitless. What they have done is built the foundation of a world of new possibilities that were otherwise unknown, not unlike Jurassic Park. And all who follow only prove to the world that the advancements of the past were relevant. Usually more relevant than previously theorized. Thus adding power to the significance of the originator. No one could tell you the names of the engineers who finalized the production or design of the iphone or the modern energy saving fluorescent light bulbs, but anyone with a 5th grade education could tell you who Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Edison were. Apple and GE may have developed that which currently impacts our everyday lives, but they would not exist without Bell and Edison who uncovered our potential as human beings to further explore the potential of their innovations. New advancements are not final products. Instead they are potential. Potential for the next light bulb or iphone or Hubble telescope or life saving drug or, yes, even deadly weapon. Spared no expense
Popular culture works the same way. Eminem, Jurassic 5, and William Hung may cross racial divides with their music, but they are following the paths of Elvis and Little Richard who did so long before any of them. Anyone who has ever appreciated a lusty bedroom scene on television can thank Fred and Wilma Flinstone for being the first prime time television couple to be portrayed as sleeping in the same bed. Regardless of your feelings about Pete Townsend, he is your pioneer if you like the showmanship of smashing instruments on stage. For every incarnation of popular culture, their was inevitably a first person to do it, and no matter how much you may deny it, all acts that follow are an unavoidable homage to that initial innovation.
As I write this, it is July 31st 2008, and we are in the middle of an historic presidential election that will result with landmark implications. One candidate is a cancer survivor, the other is part African-American. No matter who is elected, the United States of America will have opened yet another door of possibilities to another subset of people who would have never thought that someone like them could reach the office of the most powerful person in the world. Until now. We truly can do anything, and it just takes one person to remind us of that.
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