The two primary forces in human culture — the urge to belong as one and the urge to stand out as oneself — and what happens when technology rewrites the balance between them.
There are two primary forces in human culture: Unity and Diversity.
I mean, it is also about virtuosity, and the progression of creative innovation, and the movements of fashions and trends. But through all of this I see unity and diversity.
America is home to all cultures, at least in theory, as a “melting pot.” Indigenous Americans who were here first still get the short end of the stick, to say the least… and disincluding them, we are all after that, we are all descended from some generation of immigrants. The languages and cultures follow suit. Finding a place to belong in the big mix-up of American culture. A beautiful and difficult thing, to share differences.
Kids here are taught to differentiate early on. To be unique, to be his or her (or their) OWN. This isn’t worldwide, however. There are many global cultures that teach and inculcate unity from the beginning. I’m looking at for example, some “mainstreams” of Asian or Islamic cultures — I don’t know for certain, but it seems as though they dress and talk and gather and sing as one people. With one unified voice, one common experience.
I’m not criticizing. If that analysis looks like a negative critique, I think that is the bias of your perspective (or mine) filtering your imagined idea of what that would be like. I don’t know what that would be like, completely. But I have a guess that it could be a big relief at worst, and a slowly developing ecstasy, ideally… perhaps. To live a life graced and bound together more consistently by cultural unity.
Curiously, for a culture that celebrates diversity and unique individuals so much — look at copyright law and the need to influence or change culture as an example — there is an ever-present need for peak events of unity. In America. And, I imagine, in similarly diverse, individualistic nations and cultures.
The need is demonstrated in large-scale events where we all show up together, put aside our differences for the common celebration. Holidays, parades, sports games, exhibitions, concerts and performances of all kinds — they come around to remind us, at least for the moment, that we are all cut from the same cloth. That our similarities are far greater than our differences. But sometimes, most times it seems, when we’re not expressly celebrating together, we forget that we were all together to begin with.
Michael Ignatieff[ignatieff-1] called this the Narcissism of Minor Difference. It’s an ego thing. It means each one of us feels so special, unique, and in a way powerful, to be that ONE out of all of us.
If this sounds like critique, it probably is. It’s hard to be completely conformist to the culture that you are a part of. I find some solace in being a rebel. But if I can notice that and push back a little, perhaps both forces — unity and diversity — have their place in any tribe or culture or society at large.
One interesting thing to note, though, as I end this session/chapter, is that technology has become a large and hard-to-predict force — a game-changer — in all of this. It is beginning to make connection a lot more extra-local. We keep connections from all the places we’ve been, and potentially all around the world. And if you look at us, like, say, on a city bus: we are all of us on our phones, like, all the time. In our own little worlds. So even in seeming times of unity, we hold on to our shock of individuality. If you can call it that. Different, similarly. Same difference.
In the world of social media, and more obviously modern television and streaming services, the line between active participant and mindless voyeur is hard to find. And our attention spans get shorter, as we find immediately satisfying answers and let go of the questions, the curiosities, the waitings and the in-betweens. The gentle ambience is being sucked out of all of our experiences.
But then there is kickback for that. The aware among us find ways to go off-grid — to invite in ASMR and healing backgrounds, visualizations, yoga, meditations. In this chaos and confusion of diversity and dynamic culture, pseudo-spirituality is a survival strategy. You might call it Spiritual Materialism — going through the motions, with right intentions, for the right purpose, still not getting it right. Who knows how, or why, or what’s missing. Don’t stop trying!
Buddha may have imagined sitting under a tree by a river FOREVER, (or for one lifetime and maybe some resonance emanating upon sequential reincarnations, who knows!) one with all consciousness. Buddha. We emulate him by taking mere minutes out of our day to approach the minimalism of oneness — to escape the noise of cultural fullness.
But then — sometimes fullness IS what we were looking for. And the potential for media to deliver it to you and me, catered to our unique thumbprint-style subscription preference (algorithms, smart recommendations etc)…it might be like an episode of “Black Mirror” — equal parts utopia and dystopia. Let us just patiently increase our awareness of the nature and power of these forces, and I believe that we can order them, organize them, into a balance.
Personally, I believe there is enlightenment to be found on both sides of the coin. That’s just my suspicion. Do you agree? Unity and Diversity, together and respecting one another’s boundaries?
Oh and hey — don’t forget the power of one-on-one relationships. That’s unity, too. The best kind, says I says I.