Individuality is a Lonely Path

Most people assume they're unique, but they're not.

Many years ago I wrote a poem titled The Liberal, that I often think about when I think about human uniqueness:

Same old regurgitated nonsense.

Stop assuming you're unique.

I've met you a thousand times, 

only a different name and physique.

There is no such thing as a "unique" conformist. They're all the same. They dress the same. They say the same things. They believe the same stuff. 

I'm not here to say that I'm different, or unique. In fact, I think when people say that they're different, they're actually just lonely, or have believed some manipulator's lies. If they were to socialize much they would quickly realize they're just like everyone else. Even if they have blue hair and nose ring.

I watched a movie last night about this eccentric Jew. The movie was stupid, but it was based on a true story and I was bored, so I watched it, which probably says more about me than the movie.

The premise of the movie is that this loser chronicles his miserable life biographically via comic books. It's honestly not worth watching, but if you're going to spend 2 hours doing something you might as well try to take something from the experience.

Early on in the movie his black co-worker quotes a stanza from the poem The Eagle and the Mole.

Avoid the reeking herd,

Shun the polluted flock,

Live like that stoic bird,

The eagle of the rock.

The idea is to reject the herd, and either stoically perch yourself above the crowd with ambition, or be like the mole and remain humble and out of sight. Either path is one of individuality, which is just another way of saying isolation. 

Individuality is always a lonely path because people are sheeple. 

Most of us aren't as pathetic as the movie's main character Harvey Pekar, who literally married a woman the first week he met her cause he was so lonely. People who can't be by themselves are people who don't like themselves. So, as the miserable Pekar does, he seeks company. Not as a way of making his life better, but to unburden his misery onto others. These kinds of people are pathetic human beings.

If you ever meet someone who can't be by themselves for an extended period of time, stay away from them.

Harvey Pekar