The need for validation

Recently I received an email from someone asking me to Vote 4 Taj so
that Taj can be included in the new 7 Wonders of the World. Searching
Google provided the answer I was looking for, it's a large-scale,
well-organized, marketing hoax. Supposing that it isn't, and supposing
that Taj can really win only by sending the premium-rate SMS messages, I
still wouldn't do it.

Does a wonderful monument like Taj Mahal need validation from a bunch of
self-appointed judges in order to be admired and cherished by millions
and billions of people? What is the qualification of the judges, who
validated them to speak for the billions?

And if it is to be decided by the world's populace then, quoting from
another guy, "soon all the wonders of the world will be in India or
China". :)

But the need for validation lives in each and everyone of us. That's why
the man asks his friends, "So what do you think of her?" and the girl
giggles to her friends, "Isn't he wonderful?". It's not enough that we
think he/she is wonderful, we need validation from our friends and then,
our families. I won't even comment on the ones who let their parents
shortlist the candidates for them, I have no respect for them.

It's not just partners, it's everything, any work of art, any invention,
house, car, airplane, cellphone, we buy, build and get things that we
think others would like. And yet...

And yet, if you think about the real geniuses, the best and the greatest
of the world who got the validation of the world in truckloads, they
never tried to get it. The really great poets wrote because they felt
like it, the really great composer composed music for their souls and
not for the applause of the common men. And that's the best art of all
and receives the most approval from the populace.

But these are the people who went through (go through) a long period of
disapproval also. The world is not smart enough to recognize their
genius at once but they do not re-shape their thinking to suit the
world. Ultimately the world has to come around to their way of thinking.

I remember a story from Asimov, (Sorry, too long back, I don't remember
the name), in that society every one goes through education, fast-paced,
electronically imparted education based on their aptitude and brains.
Based on that they are put into a profession. This one boy, the hero, is
told he is not fit for any profession and will not be given any course.
Crestfallen. Follows a long series of chase and escapes as the boy
refuses to accept his fate and finally when the long arm of the
authority catches him, they tell him - "We need people like you to make
the courses!".

More recently, from Heinlein's book - "To sail into the sunset", his
character Brian Smith says, "If a thousand men think one way and I think
otherwise then it's a thousand to one that they are wrong!"

In other words "who validates the validators?"