WHOA...! DOES THIS MEAN YOU & I REALLY COUNT?

Lets face it -- the consequence of the individual has been, for most of human history, of no real consequence. With the exception of the very few (tribal chieftains, pharaohs, popes, and conquerors) the very many are largely innate backdrops to the historical narrative.

Some 19th C historians came up with the great-man-theory arguing some individuals shape the course of history more than history shapes them. Little doubt in the case of an Alexander, Caesar, Jesus, Luther, Henry VIII or Hitler. In the case of 21st C America, young Americans may even be appropriating this notion on their own behalf (while only 12% of adolescents thought they were "important" in 1950 polls, their number in 2010 spiked to 90%).

The celebrated CBS-TV news magazine "60 Minutes" just tossed a big log on the fire heralding the individual. Seven years after the US invaded Iraq -- with Colin Powell testifying at the UN there was "indisputable evidence for biological weapons" -- the source for that history-altering invasion finally appeared before the cameras.

Given the facts as CBS presents them, behold one small individual who changed the history of our world...!

Like other small individuals before him -- a Serbian terrorist in 1914, John Wilkes Booth in1865, Harvey Oswald in 1963 -- a no-name Iraqi defector was able to convince the entire US national intelligence complex. Thousands of CIA operatives, satellite surveillance, and computer banks were apparently superseded by the whispered reportage of one hitherto un-vetted individual.

Different lessons can be sucked out of this episode. Perhaps Locke and Jefferson are right -- we-the-people are the ultimate name of the game. Or maybe it all comes down to the dubious victory of human intuition and angry retribution versus the sophisticated cognitive machinery of modern science. Or perhaps it simply confirms the ancient adage: "man plans and the gods laugh."

Here's one more possibility. A recent Gallup survey searched for those individuals high on the "well-being-index." For all those individuals heralding the significance of the individual, you just got your man. The winner of this index is Alvin Wong. Gallup reports he's a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married with children, living in Hawaii, making $120,000 a year.

Maybe now we can all watch to see how Alvin plans to change the history of OUR world...