Wed 10 May 2006 7:03 AM
A new book called Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity practices performs the trend that it isolates. Turning ideas on their heads by way of social critique and then slapping a seemingly paradoxical title on the corresponding book seems to be the norm these days. Writing a book of this nature carries the message, one hopes, that this is new and unique and you should read it, but the formula says otherwise. Often times book titles or concepts are dreamed up by a publishing company and then a stooge writer is found to fill it up with the hollow prose you would expect.
This book, however, at least brings up an interesting phenomenon that I think should be on everyone’s mind. Individualism is barely larger than an embryo in the scope of human history, an age disproportionate to the enormity of its implications. In some ways you could view our inability to properly organize around it as the source of most modern problems.
Sure it’s better than serfdom and it’s sparked cultural revolutions that brought about greater civil rights, but as far as I can tell, the lasting effects will be empowering ad campaigns all salivating to rent your sense of self to you for exorbitant sums.
Maybe I’m Special is a sign that yes, we get it, now we can move on. I don’t know about you, but it’s pretty lonely being so goddamned special all the time. There’s gotta be a juicy sweet spot between capitalist isolationism and fascistic anonymity.
What comes after the individual? Can we be unique snowflakes and part of something greater?
May 10th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Individualism is also a pretty American creation although Western-European countries are pretty loose in many ways… Contrast the importance of family/group between Japan and America, or even Latinos and Whites… When I was in elementary school there was a big deal made of other people’s family cultures, of ‘extended families’ vs. the nuclear… The large clan existence was illustrated using ethnic examples from African village co-operatives to Chinese immigrants living with their naturalized relations… America was consistantly been viewed as this ‘go it alone’ badlands where you could break from the group and become a singular person of status which seems to have become a popular modern notion through the western film and car commercials… America, birthplace of marketing and public relations, sells the dream of individuality along with all of its other pre-packaged dreams… The rest of the world may just be catching up… Can we be unique snowflakes and part of something greater? I’m sure people are everywhere but you won’t see a commercial for it nor a newspaper column about it…