Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenchi Hou Take
While all that is nice fine sany dandy, it's not about always winning or even winning most of the. Kumagawa is more of an end justifies the means sort of guy and the ends means winning. Genius can and does only take you so far, while luck etc do play important parts of your eventual outcome in life, none of those things define you.
It's about what you and how you do it that defines. Take Albert Einstein for example despite being considered one of if not the greatest genius's mankind, he wasn't born particularily intelligient (average grades at school), nor did he come from a particularily well of family. He pretty much ended up like an average office worker you could find anywhere.But he had a love and a hobby for mathematics and physicals and continued to do so in his spare time. And after several years it was then that he proposed the invariance of the speed of light which later shocked the scientific community after it was eventually proven. He was simply a normal man who continued to do what he loved and it eventually paid dividends.
If you simply try and do something you enjoy and put your whole heart into it, then winning and losing doesn't really matter. You don't have to break the rules and do uneffical things to get there.
While Zen may not be the most liked character around it's the Zens of this world that actually get shit done. He's simply doing what he enjoys while not caring too much about winning and losing and he enjoys is adversity.
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What do you mean Kumagawa is an "ends justify the means" guy. Kumagawa is a Minus: that means that the "end" for him is always failure, and his "means" are actually the most defining part of his personality in that Kumagawa used to pursue the worst (i.e. most harmful, repulsive, degrading) ways of going about it. Kumagawa's way of life has nothing to do with the "ends", but everything about the "means"--because Kumagawa's story is about all the methods and paths he struggled through to find a way to fight back against his destiny.
School performance is a crappy measure of intelligence. That's because, much of the time, institutionalized education has basically nothing at all to do with reality; look up "academic underachiever"--it's a
widespread phenomenon for highly gifted/intelligent individuals to do poorly "in the books" or "by the records". Einstein's IQ is estimated to have been in the range of 160-180--that's the result of biology. The fact that Einstein was introduced from a young age to subjects which engaged the particular strengths of his intelligence, and that he was motivated to pursue them, were also certainly a result of his environment which depended greatly on fortuity.
Basically, you've missed the point. What Nishio/ch. 131's narration suggests is that not just "intelligence"/special talents, not just "riches"/an affluent environment, but even having a "hobby" or "love" of something at all, and the opportunity to pursue that, is a matter of chance and luxury.
Everything in Einstein's life and biology supported him someday making his scientific breakthrough in the field of physics and the theory of relativity; and these great fortuities lie behind every success or great figure of the past as well. That certain individuals received the means and the opportunity to turn their wills into achievement and reality is totally a matter of chance. But for billions of people on earth, that is an almost crushing impossibility.
(Could you really say, to the impoverished orphans or refugees of some third world country in Africa, that "just" by finding something they enjoy and putting their whole heart into it they'll really have come to make something of their existences?)
There are two manners in which the whole world moves forward. First, the blessed, the talented--receivers of good fortune, who managed to find a place for themselves in the world--they give back (i.e. like Medaka). They help others as is their moral duty. They should be as desperate to do so as the impoverished themselves. Second, the misfortunate, the poor--the utterly condemned, like Kumagawa, or others who were born into ghettos of inevitable despair, failure, or meaninglessness--they fight, desperately, to live, rise up, and make something of the life into which they were born. By these two processes of human will, the destiny of humanity changes.
"Zenkichis of the world" (as you put it) are pampered brats. (That's how Kumagawa put it--see ch. 82.) It is a
tremendous luxury to live with concern only for one's own passions. The world is a desperate place--
too desperate, for most people to live just "playing by the rules" and expect good things to come to them. Actually, it's because Zenkichi realized his own limitations that he is cooperating with Ajimu right now. In truth, our entire reality is about this struggle.
Human will is precisely struggle, against the circumstances which have defined us and the limitations placed upon us by "destiny". Medaka is one of its champions, whereas Ajimu's intent is to end struggle entirely. To call herself "transcendent", a "non-human" is completely accurate. However, perhaps her perspective is still reconcilable. As a matter of fact, the original "transcendentalism", Buddhism, is supported by two pillars of enlightenment. While one
is the abandonment of one's human self, the ablution of one's worldly passions, the pursuit of the ultimate truth of the universe and elevation into immortality (i.e. what Ajimu is in the process of trying to push onto others--the end of human desires); the other face of Buddhism is charity--that is, the compassion and love for others that comes from a knowledge of the unity of the universe and the interconnectedness of all existences. If you talk about the strong or the fortunate, someone with the capacity to help others, Ajimu by far surpasses Medaka. That's why, if Ajimu could come to respect human will (as opposed to disdaining it, and using it as a tool to manipulate people towards an even more unchangeable destiny)--to understand human struggle and the value which can be found within it--she could indeed become one of Medaka's greatest allies.
edit:
On ch. 132. I hear a shitload of older/less used characters are showing up in it. Sounds awesome, can't wait.