Pen & Watercolour Copyright 2009 Jean Burman
A human being is a single being.
Unique and Unrepeatable
- John Paul II
Why then do we allow ourselves to get so lost in the crowd?
Why are we so often content to fall “lockstep” in with the mob?
So happy not to rock the boat?
Or question the status quo?
I think it happens more in cities.
But I could be wrong. You know how I [so often] am!
Maybe it’s all that concrete? I don’t know.
But it does seem to occur more often in places and situations where people are gathered together in large crowds. Where people are moved from here to there en masse. Or where we are habitually herded together and funneled down a channel or through a system; the supermarket line… the classroom…. the workplace… or the bureaucratic process that administers pretty much everything.
After a while we lose the ability to think freely. To think for ourselves. And perhaps even… to think at all. Worse than that… we lose the ability to take personal responsibility. A quick scan of faces on the bus. The train. The ferry. I get an awful empty feeling.
Resignation and acceptance everywhere.
I’ve been noticing lately how people [stand] on travellators. You know… those things that look like escalators… but instead of going up… they go a-l-o-n-g? Like a production line? You know the ones. Yes of course you know. Grin. What some of us don’t know is… they’re meant to be walked on! But 9 out of 10 people don’t. Walk… that is. They step on… and stand there. Chat. Hold everyone up and make it impossible to get past. Most are none the wiser. It’s-what-you-do. And no-one questions it.
Odd how the same thing happens later out in the carpark. Or maybe it’s not so odd afterall? I guess if it happens on the travellator… it’s bound to happen again later in the carpark. It’s astonishing that… despite the choice of multiple exits… drivers still queue [without thinking] one behind the other at the same exit waiting [ever so patiently - or not] to punch their ticket into the ticket machine to get out. All I can say is it’s a good thing we’re not sheep. And it’s a very good thing the cliff face is not imminent.
I don’t know… seems to me there’s a numb kind of mindlessness going on out there. Or maybe it’s not so much a mindlessness as an absence of mind[ful]ness. It’s not intentional of course. But people don’t seem to have their head in gear any more. And if it is in gear… they certainly forgot to engage the clutch and select first gear!
Meanwhile… with all this mind-numbing-mindlessness-stuff going on… the clock is ticking. Lives are marching on. But we’re not stepping out as individuals.
What a waste not to take the chance to DO something remarkable. To BE someone remarkable… even if only in our own very small way. What a shame not to be the unique and unrepeatable person we know we could be (if only).
If only what?
If only we were brave enough (or awake enough) to see life for what it is?
[a fragile transient thing of limited unknown duration]
To question it. And then say “if not why… then why not?”
The single being… [unique and unrepeatable]… that John Paul II spoke of should not be fobbed off and dumbed down by the system… robbed of the creative spirit by the living of a mediocre life… and denied the chance to be something amazing.
It’s time to hit the travellator running. It’s time to get out there and swim like heck against the tide. Confucius didn’t talk about dead fish swimming with the stream for no good reason! He knew fish. And he was telling us all to get cracking!
It matters not what OTHERS think of you.
What matters is what YOU think of you.
And try and fail… or win or lose… it doesn’t matter. Except [in the end] to say… that YOU were YOU.
An individual. Unique and unrepeatable.
And despite the mistakes and failures… the shortcomings and broken dreams… and no matter how things might have looked from the outside looking in… you were [and still are] beautiful beyond description.
The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white.
Neither need you do anything but be yourself – Lao Tse
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
You just keep handing me great pearls of wisdom just as I need them. Uncanny!
Thanks Kristeena
Perhaps in hindsight… a bold statement not all might appreciate… but for some reason I simply had to get it out there!
Ah, so true. Too many are afraid to make a statement that might be questioned or found fault with. The larger the crowd, the more pairs of eyes that might see. So much easier to go with the flow, not to call attention to ones self. Sad, I agree. For so many, the mold is set, and it seems easier to fit oneself into it than to stand out. I believe this is taught to us as children–in schools with too few teachers in a classroom, families with both parents working and too little time left in a day for exhausted parents to appreciate perhaps a budding genius, whose brilliant mind might be forced into a straightjacket to make life easier for those around him. (even to be diagnosed with ADD and drugged to fit in and be just like those around him)
Maybe all this “fitting in” is why the fashion industry can create a market for awful designs and everyone flocks to purchase the newest thing, (however hidious) just because it is “new” and “different” just so they can again “fit in” and be just like everyone else— rather than being their own true self and looking their best in what truly looks best on them.
Ah, you’ve got me thinking—–
Hi Anita!
All good points. And I agree with you. Funny that you mention the fashion industry.
I went to see that movie “September Issue” the doco about Anna Wintour (Vogue Editor in Chief) and found some of the concepts really confronting.
One scene showed one of her executive editors (forget the exact title). He was a somewhat overweight middle-aged-ish man who had been instructed to take tennis lessons to lose weight and get fit. So “affected” was he… he surrounded himself with so many Louis Vuitton accoutrements (tennis racket cover/sports bag/glasses/coat you name it… it had a name on it) to make him seem entirely ridiculous. I just felt sad.
Don’t get me wrong… I think it’s great to own beautiful things… but the “things” should not own us.. (or usurp our unique identity)
And yes… society unfortunately works by grouping people according to “type” and channelling them together for convenience. You are quite right in saying it starts in schools (not to blame teachers but more the system itself) and then flows on from there.
The occasional few are able to differentiate themselves… but others remain behind… locked in by the system… some (many?) content to blend in and go with the flow.
This is all fine until one day… “empty and aching and not knowing why” (in the words of Paul Simon as he counted cars on the New Jersey turnpike *wink*) the world comes crashing in with the realisation that we really only get one chance at this.
One chance to be who we’re meant to be. Ourselves. Fully functioning independent individuals with a purpose and a real voice!
Everyone has something to offer the world at large. Every single person large or small rich or poor man woman or child. It’s our job to find out what that “something” is and bring it to the table however humble. The rewards may not be great… and the recognition probably negligible… but there’s something about having stood up for something we believe in that makes life so much more worthwhile.
When I look at all the long sad faces on the travellator of life… the kids with nothing better to do… it makes me sad that not everyone can find the one sure thing they can do that will make a difference. And of course… the biggest difference will be (within) themselves. If anyone else notices… it’s a bonus. But not essential to the wellbeing of the individual and the difference that will automatically bring to the world at large.
I just took a break to watch the Melbourne Cup. It is afterall the race that stops the Nation. Wow. I’m in awe. So many reaffirming messages coming my way just lately. Here’s an owner of a spectacular horse that has just won a world renowned horse race (one of the pinnacle horse racing events of the year)… a humble man from… yes… you guessed it downtown Cairns in little old tropical North Queensland. He says if he can do this ANYONE can. And you know what? I believe him!
Sheesh… I’ve written another article! (((LOL)))
And now this… just as I am heading off to sleep… (no truly this time I am definitely going. Grin) Just checked my emails… and here was this letter from Dan Miller’s Blog
http://48daysblog.wordpress.com/
More reaffirming messages on this topic. A little more on the commercial side but nonetheless… I swear the force is with us! LOL
Night all…
The opposite is terror of the crowd. Only this morning an article in the L.A. Times reported that people in general are avoiding self-check out machines in supermarkets because of other people in line behind them waiting to use them. I’m trying to draw some conclusion about crowds and computers, but thus far I haven’t focused on anything.
Interesting that Dan Miller wrote about “spinning.” More than a year ago I did one of my favorite cartoons about it. A man in Arab garb is spinning a sign in the shape of an arrow, and when he stops we see it is pointed toward “MECCA.” Very few people understood it because, I learned, it was unknown outside of Los Angeles. Remarkably, even here very few people got it, because even though the spinners were ubiquitous (less so now), most Angelenos were so wrapped up in their cocoons they didn’t notice them.
Perhaps the fear of self serve check outs is some sort of performance anxiety? Either way I would hazard a guess that it’s another subtle pressure applied to individuals to live up to the standards of the crowd. I mean who wants to be blocking the line with a bag of broccoli that we have no idea how to ring up? Sheesh. The demands are endless. LOL
I remember that cartoon John! And yes… have to admit I had never heard of sign spinning. It’s a “total unknown” here which speaks volumes I guess! But the concept of someone taking what they do… and doing it in an extraordinarily different way really captured my attention. Dan’s right. If each and every one of us thought about what we do (day in day out) in a completely new and different way… (coming up with innovative solutions and debunking age old assumptions)… imagine the outcome for the planet? Call me a dreamer
Quite right about the supermarket auto check-out. Apparently people are intimidated by people watching as they struggle with the computer, so I guess the point is they fear the wrath of the crowd if they take too much time trying to figure the darn thing out. Not surprising, though. I’m pretty computer savvy, and they can be confusing. It’s a reminder that the computer itself isn’t at fault, it’s the imbeciles who program them.
I have long held, Jean, that most people are genetically disposed to be compliant followers. It’s an evolutionary thing, just as there are worker ants. Going back to prehistory, the shamans were genetically different, born to their roles as intermediary between the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit. Our modern day leaders and captains of industry no longer fulfill a role that serves the group, as the shamans did (and do in some cultures). Now the tendency is to exploit the group to make their own lives better.
Very much relevant to this discussion is the death last week of philosopher-anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss at age 100. It was he who created “structuralism,” that posited the notion that so-called primitive societies did not differ intellectually to a great extent from modern ones. (I would post a link, but apparently my computer doesn’t want me to — a Google search will turn up plenty.)
Yes… I heard the news of Claude Levi-Strauss’ passing only yesterday. What an incredible contribution one human being can make over 100 short years! [I hear he cut a mean pair of jeans as well (kidding!) LOL]
All I can say is God help us if our Leaders and Captains of Industry are our modern day Shamans! We haven’t got a hope. Heavens what a depressing thought. LOL All the more reason I guess for apparently “ordinary” people with their heart in the right place to step up or at least speak out.
You’re right about the evolutionary thing… but I wonder if “following” is just another learned behaviour? A bit like Pavlov’s dogs. If people avoid the self service check out for fear of ridicule perhaps it’s modern day social conditioning which is causing us to fall into line… and then stay there. No-one wants to be the odd man out?
Still pondering that one… (grin)