Everybody wants to be special. Doesn’t matter if you are a 5-yr old listening to your teacher preach that onto you, a teenager trying to rebel against authority and find self-identity, or an 85-yr old doing god-knows-what at age 85. Bottom line is: this society saturates our minds with the mantra: “You are special.” True, everyone is definitely unique in their own ways. But if everyone is special, doesn’t the word itself become a self-negating concept, like an oxymoron of sorts?
I find it curious that people spend so much mental and physical energy trying to be ’special’, to differentiate the self from others. Yet simultaneously, people are constantly looking for acceptance from their social groups. From a psychological perspective, perhaps this is the result of people not devoting enough time and attention to personal development and letting their external world determine who they are or should be. I know we live in a materialistic/capitalistic society where image is everything, but a person’s internal development should not be sacrificed as a result. If everyone focused just a tad bit more on personal growth, I think we’d all be better off. Maybe that’s the psychologist in me preaching, but I really do think people need to let go of their ego a little. Just live, and be who they are. Let’s get REAL.
Filed under: Inside My Mental Cavity | Tagged: social commentary
It’s simple: PNP, right? For some being “real” as you say, would result in the complete alienation from the community that they so desperately wish to be a part of. And then there is the question of whether or not each person knows who their “true” self is. Are you who you are b/c of innate traits the would have naturally developed of their own accord? Or are you a product of the environment’s influence on existing tendencies?
Similar the debate as to how are with friends…do we become a reflection of them or are they simply drawing out parts of ourselves that normally lie dormant?
Interesting topic…you know I’m always up for psychological/philosophical debates. :-)