3 ms·
The title seems to be about something totally different than the article. Does the most powerful minority win? Sure. Does the most intolerant and stubborn win?
by erikb 11y ago
The title seems to be about something totally different than the article. Does the most powerful minority win? Sure. Does the most intolerant and stubborn win? Certainly not, at least in the long run.
Yes, you can smoke at a trainstation, or suicide bomb yourself to death in front of a football stadium. But that is only a success of your agenda in the very short term. If most of your coworkers are non smokers and you annoy them too often with your smoke, you lose their support in the long run and thereby your ability to push your agenda.
On the other hand we know that the straight white male is the default for our society beside being the biggest group, reason being that his agenda is integrated well in our world definition through media, history, etc. He doesn't win, because he's more stubborn. He wins because 90% of movies show him as the role model. You can be a very stubborn black woman but that won't make you rich and won't make people try to be like you, it won't enable you to push your agenda.
- pedalpete 11y agoI thought something similar, but upon reading your comment and closer inspection, it seems Taleb is focusing on rules not actions (though I only got part way through the article). For example, eating Kosher or Halal is a rule and he is saying that by a minority following this rule, all of us end up by default following the rule. Suicide bombing or smoking is an action which we don't inherently take. We are eating already, so eating kosher or halal isn't a huge difference.