Individuality. The idea that you, yourself, are a
single functioning unit in the vast collection of human beings. Like a single
blade of grass, you exist on your own unattached to the "larger
picture" known as the human existence. You are a being who conjugates
thoughts and experiences and extrapolates emotions from those experiences. Ironically
this idea is lost in the sea of thoughts which you form individually, or not.
We often lose our sense of individuality with the influence
of society. The line between what we think and what is forced upon us by peer
pressures and subliminal advertising is often blurred. Opinion oppression and
expressive massacre consistently occur on a regular basis where that man who
wanted to spend his days living in Alaska
or looking at grass was deemed useless and wasteful of his life and others
time. Time becomes a currency. Time is of the essence. Time, time, time. Nobody
has time to fathom that their time should be spent wisely making the most out
of their time alive. The most becomes material. Who ever dies with the most
toys wins. We acquire this mindset that true fulfillment is in objects and
happiness comes from a TV or computer. We use these things to distract
ourselves from the constraining life layout that is forced upon us from our
very beginning. to go to school in a white room with a square desk and memorize
facts that we can regurgitate on standardized tests in order to accept
whichever job pays the most so that we can buy more cars clothes and TVs and
pay taxes and die. Although that life may hold precious memories in its own and
could possibly form an adequate life for many, it is not how we should think. Life
is not a formula where person + education = job = money = things = happiness. Our
lives are wasted trying to work for money to achieve material happiness for our
selves and our families, but once it is achieved, it doesn’t last. We forget
that we once enjoyed ourselves without all this stuff. We forget that there
were things we liked to do outside of the life layout that was set for us by
society. We begin to forget that we can form thoughts and opinion of our own.
Walking down the street in a rush, because you are
always in a rush, with your mind preoccupied with things that you need to do,
daring not to make eye contact with the people walking next to you. But once
you look up and make the quickest glance with the slightest smile which takes
less than an ounce of your energy or thought but potentially reminded that
person that not all people are selfishly fixated on their own lives. That
person could potentially smile at another stranger having the same effect. This
may or may not continue but for those who see, they begin to think, why are we
not nicer to each other? And that is a thought many of us think. Why are we not
nicer to each other? is it because the world is a cruel place and you cant
survive if you’re nice, or maybe because society has conspired against us, or
because man is not supposed to be kind he is supposed to be great, or because
the idea of continuing this chain of living a lifestyle with tiring monotonous
work with little reward to appealing? Those some of these claims may be true,
we have the individual ability to break the chain and rewrite the world. We see
that a field of grass is actually made up of millions on individual blades. But
unfortunately, this idea can be and is reversed so that one bad apple spoils
the bunch. We are so quick to emulate those who are bad because if they are
getting a leg up we want it too, even if it is in a negative way. And so it is
easier to continue a trend.
And so we decide. Do we want to revolutionize or do
we want to survive?
