Who becomes the philospher

I have been writing a lot of pointless fluff pieces for this blog recently, and my writings for the Post absolutely suck. I hereby make this promise: after leaving the post, I shall write lots of fun pieces, the kind I want to, for the papers, and submit it to them, whether the articles are considered worth publishing or not. I do not want to lose real content with this self-conscious stream, so here’s the actual stuff.

If philosophers are clever people, how come they are/were not filthy rich?

Or alternately, why is Donald Trump not a philosopher? He is rich, he is clever, and he makes decisions for himself. He also gives advice on how to live to other people, and does not believe in superficial appearance (see: Trump’s hair).

There should be a Who Will Become a Philosopher reality series to research how philosophers are born. The participants would come from a wide variety of vocations—bankers and poets, scientists and firefighters, clerks and dictators, all would share parts of their lives with the audience for once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a billion dollars. They would be filmed all the time throughout the years, until the final challenge—to find the answer to the life, the universe and everything. That, or the right question to the answer ‘42’. If any participant committed suicide during the series, he or she would be disqualified. Because ghosts cannot be captured by conventional movie cameras.

The challenges would be real-life scenarios where the participants would have to make choices. For example, a participant’s mother and wife would both be drowning, and he can save only one. His challenge would be to answer the question—which one of them would probably make better food for him, and nag him less? Why? If his answer satisfies the judges, he would move to another round. Otherwise he would have to go on with his life without eating sandwiches before going to work. It’s sad, but that’s life.