The top man sees only other top men.

 

 

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer). A painting by a German Romanticist artist. Caspar David Friedrich's 1818 is one of the most well-known paintings in history. (Wikipedia).

Sometimes this painting is suggested to be a portrait. About the journey to the unknown. The wanderer sees the valley where he has ever been. Fog covers the bottom, and the person knows that he must go down. There is no turning back from that position. Wanderer is free and feeling comfortable, except he is alone. Nobody sees that person, so he can do anything he wants. 

The person sees another hilltop and mountains. Those things are higher than the place where that person stands. If a wanderer wants to climb to those mountains. That requires walking through the valleys. And the person must also get the mountain climber equipment. The composition shows danger. Excitement. And also the moment before stepping into the unknown. If the person wants to change the position, he must go through a rocky, difficult, and unknown route. 

The wanderer traveled for a long time. Now he has a vision of what to do next. The vision is to conquer even higher mountains. He conquered the summit of one hill. Now he wants to conquer more challenging hills and mountains. He wants to be at the top. He faced one challenge and overcame it. Now he wants to overcome more challenges. The mountains on the horizon symbolize challenges. And the hill where the wanderer stands symbolizes the challenge the wanderer has succeeded in overcoming. The first challenge is always toughest. And it trains to beat more difficult challenges. 

The wanderer knows that there is no return. There is no place to go backward. There is a suggestion that this painting symbolizes life. We cannot go back. Into our youth. We can only move forward to a future that is unknown to us. Maybe that portrait symbolizes a person on the edge. Of adulthood. Or maybe that person is a graduate student. The studies are ready. But there is only one thing to make. That is a step to working life. That means the next step. It is a step to adventure. 

It is sometimes suggested that planet Venus’s landscape. Might look like this. Maybe someday in the distant future we will get a photograph. There is an astronaut or a robot. That stands as this wanderer stands in the painting above Venus’s landscape. Those thoughts are interesting. And they bring their own charm to philosophy and imagination. 

But let’s go back to that painting. The person stands above a mystical foggy landscape. The painting is introduced in many philosophical texts, which tell about things. like stoicism. The painting is introduced as a portrait. Of a person. Who stands above fog and is their own master. Or the character portraits person who stands above. And the same way outside the other world. The person stands alone and isolated above the fog. 

People are in the fog. And the person cannot see them. The people in the valleys. Either see that person, and they can communicate by yelling. The person who stands above the fog can hear people below the fog. But that person cannot see them. This is one of the things that can connect this painting to Stoicism. The person stands above and outside society. This means freedom and loneliness. 

But there is another thing this painting tells people. The person who stands on the hill, or hilltop, is the topman. The topman sees other hilltops. This means that the topman sees only other topmen. So, topman sees other topmen, but those topmen might not have a vision of what regular people can do with the same things. Topmen can be ultra-rich people who know many other rich people. Those people often serve as managers.  They work with other managers. And those other managers open doors. To them, more often than regular people. 

Top actors talk with other top people. Top people see only top things. And that is their strength and weakness. Loneliness is the price of being free. Or maybe the top man searches other top men. 

The top scientists and other professionals also talk with other top professionals and other top scientists. They might never think what a regular actor in their sector does. When we think about the top computer specialists. There is always news about the voice files. That can open any computer system to hackers. But can a regular hacker make those things? And can a regular ICT operator even know those people? Is an ICT operator. Some kind of typical worker? 

We can think of that thing as a Formula 1 driver. Those drivers are the most well-known people in the world. But are those Formula 1 drivers typical drivers? Is a Formula 1 driver a typical car racer? And does the Formula 1 driver make the car that he uses? Topmen work with other topmen. But regular actors. It might be invisible to the top men.  And regular actors are not seeing top men. There is fog between the top and the bottom. Regular actors don’t understand the top. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog