Yes, "size can matter" in the search for hegemony

Keeping things in perspective....

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When reporting "a picture of life's other side," some topics can be more senstive than others.

One of them is size.

We all know of the perennial debate -- raging from the bedroom, to the water cooler, to the therapist counch, to the talk show, to the battlefield: "Does Size Matter?"

Please don't dismiss this as just "girl talk."

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Size has been raised by President Barak Obama -- during his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize at Oslo, Norway, December 10. 2009.

He most delicately addressed the issues of what your benefits and obligations are when you are really big -- the world's only military superpower.

It has become increasingly clear that although Obama talks of early withdrawal from Afghanistan, his great power policy seeks American hegemony in the Afghanistan area -- to a far greater degree than did President Bush.

Do military superpowers really have more fun?

Or do they just get all tied up in knots?

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Men and women have been caught up in these discussions for centuries.

How big is "big enough?" How big is "too big?"

Can "too big" make you the "odd man out?"

Can "too small" leave you rejected, laughed at?

Can "too big" win you enemies by making you vulnerable to a kind of "big penis jealousy?"

(All of these questions assume you are a man. If you are a woman, please translate to match your gender).

Some therapists will advise you that a good way to answer these questions is "to talk to your partner."

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Fortunately satirist, writer and clergyman, Jonathan Swift has symbolically dealt with these questions in his "Gulliver's Travels," 1726.

In this classic, size proved a double-edged sword.

Let Wikipedia tell the story.

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On his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of people one-twelfth the size of normal human beings (6 inches/15 cm tall), who are inhabitants of the neighbouring and rival countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu.

After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court.

Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours the Blefuscudians (by stealing their fleet).

However, he refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded.

With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship which safely takes him back home.

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A global intellectual analysis with

analytical detachment

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Today, too, size can be a double-edged sword.

As the world's sole superpower, the U.S. can feel obliged, pressured, entitled to roam the world to subdue its enemies.

But even when they are small, they can sometimes tie one down.

And the bigger you are, the easier it can be for them to find some way to bind you down.

So how to break free?

To make size once again an asset which wins you friends and gives others enjoyment?

Remember, the biggest guy doesn't always win.

The bigger the guy, the harder he can fall

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One answer is to use a big head -- to think things through.

For size unguided can backfire.

There is nothing like using one's intelligence.