Individuality/Conformity Paradox

I know I've preached a lot about how important it is to be unique, but at the same time I've been forced to ask myself, "Is there a limit to how unique we should be?" It's something we touched on briefly in class, but really caught my interest. If you have a personality that is largely different than that from the norm, (such as walking around your day-to-day life in a spiderman costume, a tutu or even both) then others will likely avoid you. Yes we want to strive for independence, but at the same time part of our human nature is seeking acceptance. It's one of the reason we join clubs, teams and make connections with people. What we end up with is this this weird paradox that we should "be different", but want to "fit in".

Now obviously if you see a 70 year old man walking around with bunny ears you're going to walk the other way, however we don't want to be just another fork in the drawer either. The class conclusion (and it's a popular one for many similar debates) was that it's all about fitting in the Goldilocks Zone. Not too different, not the same, but just right.


Also never sleep in a stranger's house.


Personally, I don't think that this should be a huge issue for the majority people. I mean certain personality types aside, we're going to grow up wanting the company of others so we're going to have those social skills. Be it through day-care, school, etc. The trick is really discovering what makes you unique, which shouldn't be difficult either since our experiences and desires are often our own. So it's like we're all given often given the same colouring book (social structure) and we're free to do whatever, even colour outside the lines, with our experiences.

"If everyone is special, then nobody is."  - The Incredibles

 I'd have to disagree with the above quote because special has a much deeper meaning than we give it credit. I mean if I'm a fantastic poet and someone else is an incredible juggler they're both special but clearly not the same. Every individual has something unique to bring to the table and that's what should be encouraged, not silenced. Otherwise you just get white noise. Don't purposely distance yourself from the world though. It's only by being a part of the world that we can make our own unique voice heard.

Never stop questioning.

Also I changed my mind about Spiderman in a tutu.

No words.