Thursday 23 May 2013

In the Land of the Blind...

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Why would the fact that he has one eye make him the king of the land of the blind? Blind people still have eyes but they can't see, this would mean that their king is a blind man with only one eye whereas the rest of the blind people still have two.
Unless they mean that "in the land of the blind the one eyed man - who can see, is king" but that may as well say "in the land of the blind the person who can see is king."
Can he actually see? That means he shouldn't be in the land of the blind, he should be in the land of the people-who-can-see or even the land of the one-eyed-people or land of the partially-sighted. Did he sneak in and take over? Or was he voted for. Maybe it was pure chance, they all voted and it just so happened that the blind man they elected only had one eye. Would it be through vote that they chose a king or would it be royal decent? Is blindness hereditary? If so maybe the royal blood line has its sight back, come to think of it - if there were people living there in families surely as the population grows people are born with their sight. Unless the land is cursed and everyone is born blind except the royal family who can see but only have one eye. That would make it more of a statement of fact -
"Hey Ted, did you know that In the land of the Blind, the One Eyed man is King?"
Possibly when everyone is born they are taken to whatever land they belong - the blind, the deaf etc. each one is perfectly tailored for each person the land of the blind is soft and everything is organised be what it feels like and everything tells you what it is. The land of the deaf has writing on everything.
THAT'S IT!! - the blind people need to be watched over because they can't see where they are so to keep an eye on them there are cameras everywhere - the one eyed man is a camera! Each camera has a speaker in and if there is a problem the person watching will call out to the blind person to help them. BOOM! Dissected and solved.
The whole world has been split up into different lands, each with its own very specific purpose. The rulers of the world keep a check on each person and assign them to whichever land is best for them.



Well, not really. That's just some fantasy world I made up to go with the saying.
I guess its just another flawed saying we still use. The meanings I found behind it are -
  1. Among others with a disadvantage or disabilty, the one with the mildest disadvantage or disability is regarded as the greatest
  2. Even someone without much talent or ability is considered special by those with no talent or ability at all
Which still doesn't make sense, having one eye is still a far far greater advantage than being blind. Bad comparison.

I still like the idea of the world with different lands for different people... could make an interesting story. It sure looks it in my head.


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