Each person is an individual, right? Or we like to think of it that way, but each person is an individual in a mass society so that person really isn’t an individual. He is just another person, just like the rest of the “individuals” in that group, eating, dressing and talking in the same way. Now you might be wondering what I’m talking about, it’s actually very simple yet, at the same time complicated. Today in class we were reading and discussing how an individual is really not an individual because society expects certain things from you and even though you say you’re an individual, you end up doing what the society wants. For example all of us are educated and since the first day of our primary school education, we are all taught that after high school we should go to a good university and only then can we get a good job, but these jobs are also decided for us by the society. Usually the jobs that we are all going to be after are in the private sector, management of some sort.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not wrong; it’s just a way of life. It happened centuries before us and it will happen after us as well. We all subconsciously find ourselves in a group, its rare that you will find a true individual, you will think, act and do things differently only to please yourself and not any of the social groups. I was thinking among these lines when I thought that the closest example of all this could be seen at our own university. All of us believe that we are individuals, that’s what we like to think, that somehow we are unique from all the others around us yet even at our university, we all separate ourselves into groups. It’s actually pretty interesting and quite funny. For instance, the most creative students are the FADA students right, I mean they are constantly thinking and creating different projects- so they must be individuals. But if we take into account that a individual is a person who doesn’t think, act or do what others do around them, then they can’t be considered individuals, because most of the FADA students all look alike. They look alike in the sense that they are recognizable, I could be anywhere on campus and I can usually tell which student is from which faculty, most people can. We all seem to be alike to those we are with. Lets face the truth- none of us are individuals, which means that we are all going to be after the same jobs. May the best “individual” =P win!
Sibel Muradoðlu (ELIT/IV)
