What is this "average"? Obviously, it is a statistical measure. But what does it mean in terms of people? In those terms, "the average" is just a narrative of

What is this "average"? Obviously, it is a statistical measure. But what does it mean in terms of people? In those terms, "the average" is just a narrative of what the average person would be like. Which seems to be breaking down. Sure - you can make a list of specific things that every person needs or desires, as there is a lot of commonality between people. Aside from that commonality, we do different things, which are specific to persons or groups. You cannot really speak of a mathematical average there, as those are qualitative differences not quantitative differences (and the groups also overlap...). How do you "escape the average"? How is it to be "average"? How will you and other people escaping, affect that average? Will the average catch up with you? I think the term is losing meaning, more than anything else, due to the specialization inherent in our technological society, and due to non-geographical clustering of people made possible by faster means of communication.