How are you different from these cogs? They're just normal people so explain to me what makes you better?

What makes me different? A variety of things. I am - quite literally, and unfortunately - among the smartest people on the planet. More importantly, however, is the amount of self-reflection I undertake on a regular basis, and the thoroughness with which I investigate my beliefs regarding the world. I make a concerted effort to maintain a level of rationality that is - again, unfortunately - seemingly quite rare.

You have apparently detected an amount of hubris in my words, and you wouldn't be wrong. I am an arrogant sonovabitch. I'm not proud of my arrogance, and have made it clear to those who have detected it in real-world interactions that if they could provide useful and actionable means by which I might reduce that trait in myself, that I would take such advice to heart. It is telling that none I have told this have offered anything of note. I am what I am.

From my perspective, and in terms of what I value, I am significantly different because I believe I have the intelligence and the skill set to make significant academic contributions to the world, and believe I am capable of achieving things that are simply beyond most. From my subjective viewpoint, this makes me different and sets me apart from the world.

However, from a more objective view, this is patently not the case. What is the blacksmith, without the farmer to provide him sustenance? What is the leatherworker, without the rancher to provide the raw materials? From the beginning, society has existed as a means to allow for specialization, which functions as a work and production amplifier. Without the framework of society, we would all have to grow our own food, produce our own power, entertain ourselves - and given that no one can be talented at everything, this obviously leaves us all that much poorer.

In a functional society, everyone has a place and serves a greater purpose. However, do not mistake the miller's contribution to society in his role as a miller for something that would result in the miller having a greater understanding of himself, society, or the world at large. I can appreciate the cogs for what they are, and do not belittle them for the small role they play in history, but I also do not mistake mice for bears: I will glean nothing of value from whatever "insight" the miller has gained over the course of his life.

If you have not engaged in regular introspection or examined the world in any meaningful way, then yes, it is entirely possible that the musings of any random old person may seem full of wisdom and insight. However, I will continue to contend that the mere aggregation of years of existence is insufficient background to develop any meaningful philosophical insights that a person of fewer seasons could not glean with effort and will. In the past, old age was seen as a marker of wisdom by virtue of simply surviving that long, and the general lack of access to information most people had prior to the industrial revolution. In this day and age, however, there is no excuse for reliance upon the passage of time as a means to access wisdom. Respect one's elders? Certainly, to an extent. But consider them "wise" simply by virtue of age? Not any longer, and especially not in the current geopolitical climate, where the majority of "elders" are the same assholes who let all this leftist madness rampage unchecked through our civilization.