Walter Rhett: The Archetype of the Outlier

[DemocratsForProgress]

Since its beginnings, America has had a fascination with the outlier, the swashbuckling rogue, the Blackbeards and James Deans who reject the odds. In literature, heroines were always infatuated by these men, as they furthered their self-shouldered missions. They were transformed not by duty but by their inner furies (Mel Gibson, The Patriot). They were propelled into a darkness not served by dark money. The outlier is largely self-invented—or self assembled. For them politics serves as a stage; a way to shine on their own terms.

I studied the type in college. Having done a thesis on archetypes drawn from Jung, the type I speak of is not alienated or angry but synthetic. The synthetic revels in its own experience; what we describe today as self-absorbed. It bears little allegiance to tradition, performs well in brief spurts, uses the status quo for comfort but tramples on the edges of the social order, and often leverages alienation into fame.

Launched like a rocket, its arc is illuminated by our own watchful eye. In truth, it is so far removed from us we cannot see vivid details, only its dramatic impact.

A symbol of changing times, it is often the first radical emergence of an altered world view...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2013/06/12/the-archetype-of-the-outlier/