The good o’ colloquialism that “people are all the same” was sung by early noughties UK female pop band the Sugababes – I’m quite sure and NOT A BIT ASHAMED OF THIS KNOWLEDGE – in aiming to be a catchy sentiment. A conclusive statement of reflection is then offered is that that “you only get judged by the things you do”, or words to that effect; I don’t wish (or maybe I secretly do!) any research on this topic, but I think that it ends something like the all affirming statement that “if I’m ugly then so are you!”
Could any be any better way of a worthy lesson that could be given to contemporary culture? This is not to say that I think we’re any worse than in times gone by, but we’ve now in this previously alien situation of being able to be heard instantaneously in all corners of the world. Pretty magical. Though inevitably the ability the ease through which it is possible to spout information from a pedestal that is often little beyond one of populism and illustrates its negative consequences. People seem to be as sociable as we are instinctive pack animals and with this are tendency for us to herd in forming friends and enemies with equal ease is prevalent.
Although any formal education of science does not transcend beyond GCSE level, I’m pretty sure that our DNA makes us all 99.9% the same. I do not think that what feels to me like our current obsession with self and exclusivity allows much for this fact. It’s almost as though we’re encouraged to harbor such a pronounced perception of ourselves that it’s little wonder that so many of us struggle to identify with one another. If you could flick through some postgraduate job applications and were allowed to bank a pound for every supposed self-qualifying word such as “passionate” and “expert” I think that you’d see yourself become a far richer person in profiting through the hyperbole of desperation!
The political state of the world would hardly seem to cater or represent the simple obvious truth, that we are all just so similar. Beyond the fact that this seems to be found to be as disconcerting as it is comforting, I just hope that in the ever more polarised world, the advanced means that we have to communicate can be used more to unite rather than disband us.
Never is this more unashamed or hurtful than it can be when cushioned through an online presence. It is all so devoid of any true ability to have an actual discussion. Whilst I wouldn’t claim innocence in now having fallen victim to handbag squabbles or their equivalent in the past and as long as they’re not seen as much beyond equally pathetic to both sides so engaging in a debate in which it’s close to impossible or unheard of for anybody to be willing to change their mind, they can be harmless enough..
I just think that we need an urgent reversal of chastising each other and laying into people’s views to build prestige, but instead to focusing on searching for any solidifying the unity between us. As recent elections in the UK and USA especially testify, is that you cannot generate anything positive through division.
The 1980s – albeit the tail end of – is the world that I was born into and as much as I look with fondness at elements of the decade’s music and pop-culture, I always want to move forward and not feeling as though we were regressing back, as the political landscape could have had us believe. It’s almost as though society’s stuck in the same cyclical pattern as it ever has been: a tried and tested way of doing things is rebranded, tweaked and then glossed-up as something new only delivers similar results. The Emperor’s New Clothes automatically springs to mind.
The way I see it, is that we’re all far more similar than we’re ever comfortable acknowledging. Our basic needs of security, shelter, sustenance and affection are all as unified as they are necessary. We’re all fed the same capitalist rhetoric that we use in assigning value to qualities, be they wealth, supposed intelligence or appearance. It can be little short of vain to pride yourself in any of them being deemed superior to anybody else’s. In whatever limited life experience that I may be able to offer is only that I can most easily place my faith in the conception that the only view that should ever really carry any weight is that which you have of yourself. Atheist’s amen.
