Recently, someone said to me: “There are three kinds of people […]”. The simplest illustration is people answering questions by either: Yes, No, or Don’t Know. For more examples: HuffPost, Medium, St. Benedict. Often, we think in dualistic terms, like: yes-no, believers-unbelievers, givers-takers, black-white, etc., despite the different shades of gray/grey that we know exist
The source of this saying appears to be Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947), an American philosopher, diplomat, educator, and former President of Columbia University in New York. In a March 1931 speech, he stated:
“The vast population of this earth, and indeed nations themselves, may readily be divided into three groups. There are the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens. Every human being is born into this third and largest group; it is for himself, his environment and his education to determine whether he shall rise to the second group or even to the first.” (Note: emphasis in quote added by LO)
While paraphrasing Dr. Butler‘s words, these three groups are:
- Creators, who bring, give, and contribute to society;
- Followers and/or copycats, who take (ideas) and profit from these; and
- Bystanders, who may (not) look at the first and second group.
To some extent, these 3 groups seem to represent the triangle of Love (ie, creation), Power (ie, profiteering), and Knowledge, albeit that the latter then also includes a lack of it. The triangle of Love-Knowledge-Power (my blogs) is my main example of trialism (my blogs).
In business, these three groups would represent: (1) entrepreneur and/or inventor (ie, creation), (2) competitors (ie, copycats), and (3) buyers (ie, bystanders). There are many more analogies.
“In life you will find three kinds of people: those who will change your life, those who will harm your life and those that will be your life.” (Anonymous quote)
Every Kinda People (1978) by Robert Palmer (1949-2003)
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Ooh, it takes every kinda people
To make what life’s about, yeah
Every kinda people
To make the world go ’round
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
0 Comments