Geek Wisdom of the Week

By: Victor “Fiefo!” de la Cruz

httpv://youtu.be/uO1B5yaoJyU

In a couple of weeks or so, people will be hitting the polls to vote for who will be the new leader of the free world. Both presidential candidates are right now trying to prove that they are the one who deserves your vote. This is the perfect time to take a good dose of Geek Wisdom to help you mull over your choice.

And who better to give this week’s piece of Geek Wisdom than a con man who wants to run for political office?

The Quote: “Jeff Johnson – the name you know.”

The story behind the quote: The Distinguished Gentleman is a film about a con man, Thomas Jefferson Johnson, played by Eddie Murphy. He realizes that his name is almost a match to the recently deceased Congressman of his district. Using the name “Jeff” Johnson, he decides to run for Congress because he believes that, well, all politicians are crooks anyway, so he should fit right in.

He then starts campaigning, using the old campaign materials left by the real Congressman. He also creates advertisements using the slogan “The name you know” and cleverly making sure that he doesn’t
show himself in the ads. Essentially, the plan is that people will just see the name that they’re familiar with and vote for that person.

The thing is, his plan actually works!

The Geek Wisdom we can take from it: The reason why we vote is not to select the most popular person or choose someone because they have “the name you know.” It is because we have to select the
person that we believe will be the best leader. We have to listen to each candidate’s stand on issues and plans for the future to help us make the decision.

Unfortunately, like the people in the movie that voted for Eddie Murphy’s character, it’s easy to get blinded by what’s familiar and what’s popular. We see photo ops of the candidates washing pots in a soup kitchen
or delivering pizzas to volunteers. However, these photos don’t actually answer why they are qualified to run a country.

So, it would be a good idea to actually start thinking of who to vote for before hitting the polls. Weigh their strengths and weaknesses before making the choice.