TheGreatWhiteHope™

Dedicated to Smokin’ Joe Frazier, a true giant of a man and sadly missed. However, this is about “white” in the sense of cowboy hats, not in the sense meant by Muhammed Ali when he called Joe an “Uncle Tom.”

It’s human nature, if you oppose somebody or something, to pick a Champion. Greek myths, Arthurian legend, detective stories on TV, all of that. Generally speaking, a little consistency is considered to be part of the deal. Take Greek myths as an obvious example. Absolutely any Greek Champion has a weakness, a tootsie or two of clay, but they’re still champions in an imperfect world.

The World of Loon, however, demands perfection, and nothing but perfection. It’s a strange sort of perfection, too. One minute, like IBM, you are a reviled monopolist, and the next minute you are TheGreatWhiteHope™. What causes this sudden tergiversation? I don’t know, but I think it can be attributed to the Hurd Mentality. A small number of “opinion leaders” convince the unwashed Loon masses that black is white and wrong is right, and there’s a sort of sudden phase shift, where the Hurd points in a totally different direction.

Right up to the point where the new Hero falls just that teeny bit short of Perfection … which happened to Novell at one point, although I notice that Pogson is now quoting Novell lawsuits with approval, so presumably Novell are now Champions in Waiting.

Basically, the half-life of a Loon GreatWhiteHope™ is roughly five years … an interesting timescale, that. Even Canonical is looking a bit punch-drunk, these days.

So, mes petits fous, be careful when you think you see the next GreatWhiteHope™. You might simply be experiencing Snow Blindness.