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Standardized human beings

Often, I have seen and observed human beings who think in similar way, who act in similar way given a similar situation situation. They have similar values and beliefs, and deviations adherence to these norms or questioning them seems unthinkable. It is as if giving 10 such people same set of stimulus and getting exactly the same output from all 10 of them.

Not only it does exist ... it is often actually encouraged, and at times forced upon. For instance I have seen kids who are forced to become right handed just because it seems odd to be a left handed in a world full of right handed people. Even if this means labored eating and writing using by using right hand. Or almost every other unsuspecting 2-year old kid expected to recite millions of things millions of times before the guests.

Often you are expected, and at times forced to have same set of interests so that you fit into the society. For instance you must like similar hindi film music, you must like and appreciate dance and be able to do so, you must be able to sing in a sizable gathering, you must be good in sports and studies, you should have a sense of humor that can be classified as 'friendly' (as per orkut definition), you should worship daily, you must talk such that elders or any other people are not offended and people of same age group don't get bored ... yet you must be able to live freely and express your opinions freely blah blah blah. A male who lacks interest in stock market or cricket and a female who doesn't help in kitchen is a blot on face of humanity.

You need not be an expert in a particular field or show deep interest or be passionate about an issue if it hampers you being an all rounder by not adhering to the above mentioned standards! And if you don't follow above standards then all efforts to make you adhere to above specifications are likely to be made.

Seeing these norms often make me feel that humans should be like a machine or a automaton following certain technical specifications and fine tuned as per requirements or as the situation may be. The outer layer may be different, but the core remains similar.

I don't mean that we should be unpredictable ... but at least we can be something different, something different from the crowd ... someone who is not just another brick in the wall, as the great Pink Floyd would say!

Comments

  1. It'll be a constant battle between trying to fit into a group, and trying to be different from the group.

    Some find a balance between the two, the others gently resign to either of the two forces.

    p.s - If the Google Ads aren't earning you much/any revenue, you can consider removing it. It looks a bit awkward.

    ReplyDelete

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