From as long as I can remember and from well before that even, I’m sure (from the beginning of civilization to be more precise), I’ve seen people change over time. This is not some kind of evolution they undergo to be cured of life threatening diseases (I wish it were) or gain an added advantage at a sports event(although, I do believe that Michael Phelps has started the evolution of human-fish, excuse the prose). No, what I’m referring to is something plain as day, but when it occurs it hits us like a freight train, and shocks us to boot. The change I’m referring to is a change of trends.
Now, everyone must have heard of one or the other quote that conveys the idea : There are two kinds of people : the Trend Setters and those who follow. Many a wise man/woman has said something or the other about being your own self, being true to oneself and striving to be unique, to make trends and not follow them. Here, in this quagmire, lies my first argument, is it even possible to be “unique”. An evening stroll around the local hang out place would give one numerous examples of people who have been told that they are unique, but still wear the same branded T-shirt, or have the same ideas, or have a crush on the same girl/boy, or listen to the same music, and think of themselves as unique. The fault is not theirs for believing so; it’s the way they’ve been brought up. Every parent would should want his/her child to be extraordinary, and the first lesson that is instilled in the child to become extraordinary is to become unique. But then, just wanting so doesn’t make it so. There are various aspects that go against making a person unique, and among others nurture is the most significant. A child’s environment is responsible for a child’s future. A child brought up in a rich family, which believes in education is very likely to be successful in life. But, environment may also encumber a child’s prospect of being “unique”. This can be seen everywhere today, people like to stick with people who think alike. Thus, in other words people are more comfortable with people of the same type. This creates stereotypes and, by and large, kills “uniqueness”. Not only that, taking the question of trends into aspect, what is the real world if not a muddle of brands and ‘what’s next’ in the market. The market, at the risk of sounding anarchist, has transformed people into puppets, who lap up everything that the market spews at them. So, people today, and it pains me to proclaim this, have become, against their wishes, trend followers.
And what if someone really wish to be unique in all respects? There is only one way that it could be achieved if the person in question were to live on a lonely island, then there’s a small, infinitesimal chance that he/she might turn out unique. But, what is one to do with such uniqueness? Uniqueness as an idea is vaunted, but being unique just for the sake of being different is unnecessarily laborious, and damaging to one’s social stature as well, a unique person might be shunned by others, not because this person has a questionable character, but because his/her uniqueness might be seen as a sign of arrogance by others. It is only when this uniqueness is mellowed, and personality is augmented by an almost monomaniacal drive towards innovation and/or progress, that trends, in the true sense of the word, are made and a person truly becomes extraordinary. But that, is for another article.
- A typical writer.
