Individualism and Conformity

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Please in this country (USA) talk about indiviuality yet everyone follows social conventions, so is there any individuality and if there is, where is the demarcating line?

I watch television ads. "To be a rugged individual then wear these clothes and this aftershave. Drink Pepsi Max and shave your designer stubble with this electric razor."

The TV tells me all I need to know to be an individual.

Individuality is extremely rare in western society. Everyone is being told what to think and how to behave.

Have you ever seen a multi lane road when the light changes green? Neither lane moves because no one wants to be the first? They are all waiting for someone else to show them what to do?

Have you ever seen a jam-packed parking lot, where one entire row is completely empty? Cars ignore those spots and keep circling around until they find parking somewhere else. I park on the empty row, and 10 minutes later that section is also completely full?

Have you ever seen a single person crossing against the walk signal, and everybody else follows them?

People buy junk products advertised on TV, not lesser known products that are of superior quality.

Organized religion? Do I even need to elaborate this?

Fashion! Why were certain clothes popular last season, but not worn this season?

Team building exercises at large corporation. That stuff makes me gag.

There's little approval of actual individuality. OTOH, "individuality" is all the rage. It's not what it's made out to be. Particular little perturbations around accepted things are ok, but actual deviation is just, you know, freakin' weird & unacceptable.

As with most things human, I think it comes down to social status & positioning. With (some) fashion, I think the idea is to make things ridiculous enough that people want to laugh, but subtle enough that they won't if others seem to be taking it seriously. That set-up makes out the laughers to be too un-cool "get it."

So people won't laugh, but will instead insecurely wonder about the mysterious, sophisticated fashion-sense that they lack; the secret knowledge that separates them from the Cool People. But then, they don't have to have it -- they can pretend to, and thereby be cool, even though it really makes no sense to them. Of course, the punchline is that nobody really gets it and that everyone is pretending to in order to impress everyone else.