Somebody to Admire

Similar to Queen’s song “Somebody to Love” I believe that we all should have “somebody to admire” and, if we don´t, we should look for it. Don’t misunderstand me: you don’t need to know this person (or these persons); you have only to follow its opinions or public appearances with a truly emotional commitment.  

Most of us admire some persons that, in a special way, are like a kind of reference for us. Commonly we are interested in their opinions, have a strong tendency to defend their positions (which is more emotional than rational in most cases) and to incorporate them in our daily behavior. They may be considered as “idols” or “heroes”, even though such denominations may be possible too grandiloquent.  

In my personal case I have two persons that fall into this vague definition. They are the musician Charly Garcia and the economist Milton Friedman. Both had a powerful and similar effect on my ideas and behavior despite of the fact that they seem to be very different and for many persons even opposed characters. I had always heard about them, but I was almost 20 years old when I began actually exploring the world of Charly García and a bit more than 30 years old when I started with Milton Friedman’s ideas. The channel through which I have the opportunity to dive into the depth of their thoughts was the same: the great YouTube. This marvelous web tool deserves a special recognition. It has allowed me to hear full albums, attend to various courses, listen to different speeches and interviews and a lot more. It’s really a great tool for learning and having fun at the same time!  Therefore, my most sincerely respects regarding YouTube.

As I mentioned later, I met Charly García, of course not in a physical way, in my 20’s and listening to his music for the first time was simply astonish. It was a very subtle and elegant mix of classical music with elements from the popular world, specially, from rock, tango and folk.  The lyrics were mysterious and dark but charged with a strange feeling of hope. Without using sumptuous words and rather simple sentences very powerful concepts were illustrated in his songs. All these combined elements made the whole esthetical concept of “Say No More” very engaging. It represented chaos, critical thinking and beauty at the same time. It encouraged me to ask where the limits were and what would happen if we move them a little. These limits imposed by social behavior were arbitrary? The main and most important lesson of Charly was this sense of critical thinking and not giving any answers for granted.

The same effect was produced by Friedman’s ideas regarding free markets and concentration of power. I knew very little about economy and therefore was concerned with the general economic and political concepts explained by Milton Friedman rather than his contributions to economic science.  It was the challenging and simple questions proposed by Milton what draw my attention. It was not obvious that distributing wealth from rich to poor trough taxation was an efficient solution to poverty. On the contrary, that mechanism could provide more segregation and worsen the problem. The alternative of using free markets in which voluntary cooperation is promoted seemed very powerful in order to avoid the apparition of monopolies.  Besides the interesting content of his ideas it was really the way Milton presented them what struck me most. Everything was logically analyzed and, most important, supported with evidence and data. Thereby, the whole concept represented rationality and logical soundness. This perception moved me, on an emotional level, to pose questions and try to find simple answers from them.

As you can see, having somebody to admire can really affect the way you see the world.  You need to put aside your ego and let your emotions find a place where your own thoughts can develop in the most prolific way.