Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

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David Handeye
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Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by David Handeye »

Is it possible to be different in a world of different people? We are so different from each other, nevertheless we are obliged to live in a conformed world of unconventional people. Sometimes I feel so excluded, for I am what I am, I want to be what I am, but it seems to me that if I don't behave like people expect I should behave in a conventional way, then I am thought to be so "different", but how is this possible? How do you deal with your diversity in a world that want you aligned?
Dalek Prime
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by Dalek Prime »

You live with it and move on, be eccentric, go crazy, become a recluse, a misanthrope or curmudgeon. Worked for Diogenes.
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Arising_uk
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by Arising_uk »

David Handeye wrote:Is it possible to be different in a world of different people? ...
Er!?
We are so different from each other, nevertheless we are obliged to live in a conformed world of unconventional people. ...
Er!?
Sometimes I feel so excluded, for I am what I am, I want to be what I am, but it seems to me that if I don't behave like people expect I should behave in a conventional way, then I am thought to be so "different", but how is this possible?
Because the world is not full of different people?
How do you deal with your diversity in a world that want you aligned?
You make a lot of money is one way.
duszek
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by duszek »

I cannot afford to be myself. I have to behave myself and this includes being fake, telling lies, cheap flatteries etc.

Putting up with the role I am expected to perform keeps me from pain.
I try to do it as if I were using an autopilot. I don´t think about it, I just perform and try not to focus on it.

:(
Pluto
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by Pluto »

Is it possible to be different in a world of different people? We are so different from each other, nevertheless we are obliged to live in a conformed world of unconventional people. Sometimes I feel so excluded, for I am what I am, I want to be what I am, but it seems to me that if I don't behave like people expect I should behave in a conventional way, then I am thought to be so "different", but how is this possible? How do you deal with your diversity in a world that want you aligned
Okay, first let me ask you, how are you different? How do you see yourself as being different, and because of that, not fitting in with the rest?
Dalek Prime
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by Dalek Prime »

duszek wrote:I cannot afford to be myself. I have to behave myself and this includes being fake, telling lies, cheap flatteries etc.

Putting up with the role I am expected to perform keeps me from pain.
I try to do it as if I were using an autopilot. I don´t think about it, I just perform and try not to focus on it.

:(
Its not easy, is it. It's an art form. And an exhausting one at that.
David Handeye
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by David Handeye »

duszek wrote:I cannot afford to be myself. I have to behave myself and this includes being fake, telling lies, cheap flatteries etc.

Putting up with the role I am expected to perform keeps me from pain.
I try to do it as if I were using an autopilot. I don´t think about it, I just perform and try not to focus on it.

:(
Ciao duszek, I think you have understood perfectly what I meant. «I cannot afford to be myself». That's the way I often feel. Anyway, I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one to face this fake world, as if you come across as what you are, often you are misconceived. Often people don't understand my intentions, or sometimes I need to stay alone, but this can be interpreted as a refusal from myself, but it is not a refusal, and so on.. I'll put the autopilot on :P ciao Lucy, e grazie!
David Handeye
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by David Handeye »

Pluto wrote:Okay, first let me ask you, how are you different? How do you see yourself as being different, and because of that, not fitting in with the rest?
Ciao Pluto, I think everyone of us is a microcosm, so I was asking how you deal with the macrocosm out of you. I have in part answered to duszek about this, I am quite tired of appearing and not being. Do you succeed in being really yourself in modern society? Answer truly... if so, how?
Pluto
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by Pluto »

I thought that I asked you this question, but you didn't say how you are different from others, in what way. For me, as an artist, it is important to be myself as much as I can. At home I am perhaps more myself than when I am out, interacting with others. At work it is not easy being yourself as you have to perform a certain way there. I am conscious of wanting to be myself as much as I can, even if I come across as odd. I know that most people are part productions of the status quo through mass media, and that if I can counter that by being not of that, then it's a good thing and okay. But it is not easy, one has to find a way to fit into the whole. If not then your message has to be strong in order to retain an aspect of legitmacy. At present I'm thinking about the gap between the life you live at a local level, with job, family, and friends, and then the wider society and the world. How to narrow this gap. I have friends who live perfect ideal, almost advertisement lives of happiness (in appearance) while the rest of society and the world takes a back seat to them achieving a nirvana-like state for themselves and those close. We need to do well in our own lives but also realise we have obligations to others who are in positions directly opposite to our own.
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

David Handeye wrote:Is it possible to be different in a world of different people? We are so different from each other, nevertheless we are obliged to live in a conformed world of unconventional people. Sometimes I feel so excluded, for I am what I am, I want to be what I am, but it seems to me that if I don't behave like people expect I should behave in a conventional way, then I am thought to be so "different", but how is this possible? How do you deal with your diversity in a world that want you aligned?
We are not only different to each person, we are different to ourselves with each new day.
duszek
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by duszek »

It could be that some people address certain sides of our personality and so we can develope these sides of our personality with them.

An example (not a very good one):

With some people we can mainly practice drinking, swearing, complaining and ranting.

With other people we can practice dry humour and sophisticated speech and irony.
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hammock
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by hammock »

David Handeye wrote:. . . How do you deal with your diversity in a world that want you aligned?

The thought and behavior control state never disappears, it simply finds a new taboo mask to wear. Whatever is supposed to be "unique" about an individual (as if there is such a thing these days) must find legroom in that extra degree of freedom surviving in private conversations and facetious activity among friends and colleagues who aren't ideologically correct prudes (of both the philosophical / political and religious modes). Many comedians avoid campuses these days because even the last refuges of humor and doctrinal casualness are under siege there.

But should this instead concern fear of or a lingering disgust in having to be assimilated by the traditional norms of maturity, rather than any current ideological fads:

Adulthood itself just is the adoption of stereotypical social roles, and the final stage of conformity to cultural systems and their expectations and etiquette. With apprenticeship in these everyday performing arts actually beginning early on when kids pretend to be astronauts, bounty hunters, parents, nurses, firemen, electricians, doctors, etc. Simply acquiring and retaining a job (especially one involving direct interaction with customers) demands setting aside one's informal, eccentric, or atavistic personality traits and donning the cloned professional behavior of _x_ employee.

To remain in the Holden Caufield phase of being overly obsessed with "phonies" and being perpetually self-conscious of one's prison of conventions is to risk venturing down Oswald Street, Chapman Lane, Hinckley Avenue, and Bardo Alley. A common adage is that it takes a perceptive person to be a cynic, but an even more perceptive person to not be one (at least in public). In actuality, the first capacity pretty much follows most "save-the-whales" pre-teens' or idealistic college students' smash-mouth encounters with reality, with the second capacity ensuing not long after. A good part of those which the entrenched cynics deem to be blind establishment zombies who keep the "machine" going were once depreciators themselves who either grew-up or finally realized they were never going to have much success in their quest to become a celebrity rebel. The latter now as much a predictable slot [zzzzz....] in the social roles template as anything else.
duszek
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by duszek »

But the social roles keep changing.
What does it take to be a successful trend-setter ?
The Inglorious One
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by The Inglorious One »

'
...for I am what I am, I want to be what I am
That's fine, but what are you? What is a human being? What is your "self"? Is it real, or merely a mental construct with which you identify?
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HexHammer
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Re: Is it possible to be different in a world of different people?

Post by HexHammer »

David Handeye wrote:Is it possible to be different in a world of different people? We are so different from each other, nevertheless we are obliged to live in a conformed world of unconventional people. Sometimes I feel so excluded, for I am what I am, I want to be what I am, but it seems to me that if I don't behave like people expect I should behave in a conventional way, then I am thought to be so "different", but how is this possible? How do you deal with your diversity in a world that want you aligned?
Apparently your lack of intellect and rationality creates an artificially problem.
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