“You are unique. And there are seven billion others, just as unique as you. Each of us is different, with some new angle on the world. But what does it mean if the lives we’re busy shaping by hand, all end up looking the same—easily replaced by a thousand identical others? So we all spread out, looking for scraps of frontier, trying to capture something special, something personal. As if we’re afraid of being captured ourselves—so quickly pegged for exactly what we are—so easily mistaken for someone ordinary, just like everyone else. It should be a comfort that we’re not so different, that our perspectives so neatly align, that these same images keep showing up, again and again. It’s alright if we tell the same jokes we’ve all heard before, it’s alright if we keep remaking the same movies. it’s alright if we keep saying the same phrases to each other, as if they had never been said before. ‘The powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.’ You and I and seven billion others will leave our mark on this world we’ve inherited. But if, in the end, we find ourselves with nothing left to say, nothing new to add, idly tracing outlines left by others long ago, it will be as if we weren’t here at all. This too has been said many times before. ‘The powerful play goes on.’ But when you get your cue, you say your line.” - Vemödalen: The Fear That Everything Has Already Been Done

The extract above is the transcription of the video that I’ve linked above. It basically says that since there are so many people in the world and so many people that have lived in the world (according to some estimates 117 billion people have lived on this Earth), what if everything we do was already done by them.

All of us like to think that we are unique. Last week I posted a blog about Sonder, which is realizing that other people’s lives are just as complex as yours, hence you are not as unique as think. But for most of us our ego is too high and we can’t accept that.

In the modern day and age where the internet and the media are so influential, I feel like most of us are not that different from each other. In fact, I’d go as far as to saying that most of us are alike. I have a friend who dyed her hair blonde. There are only so many dye options in the world and people like to go with the ones that are popular, that celebrities or other famous people use. Therefore, a lot of other people have dyed their hair the same blonde. On campus, I’ve mistaken so many people for her, just because they had the same hair color and were similar in height to her.

Now this is what I call the desire to ‘fit in the society’, the desire to ‘keep up with the latest trends’. For the most part, that is how most people buy their clothing as well. Either because they were promoted by a large brand, or celebrity, or because they were simply good (because of which they got popular). Seriously, next time try to count the number of people that are wearing ‘Nike Jordan’, it’s insane! When you think about it, it does kind of make sense. All these companies are spending millions of dollars to convince you to buy their products and unless you are actively aware of that you’ll fall into their trap at some point.

It’s not just the companies and the celebrities forcing us to be alike, it’s also us as a society. There are certain social norms in society, which if you don’t follow, you’ll feel like an outcast. For example, cursing every other sentence and over-reacting to small things. It annoys me so much because it makes everything so predictable. It’s like everyone is an NPC now, who are programmed to say certain words when a certain event is triggered.

Once you realize that everyone is trying to fit it, trying to be cool, it feels so cringe. Maybe that is why I try to do things to be different from everyone. I try not to buy from huge brands, even if their products are good. I don’t say curse words or the NPC responses. There are other small actions that I also like to do, e.g. taking the stairs instead of the escalator. I don’t know why everyone is lining up for the escalator like sheep, glued to their phone. I like to open my own doors, literally. I don’t know why people wait for others to exit so that they can just slide through the already opened door. There are two doors for a reason, just stop being so lazy!

Fortunately, it isn’t all bad. Some of the things us humans do just come from just being curious and having common goals. Take a look at the example below:

Let’s say that it has never snowed in your area, and you’ve never met any person who has experienced snow. All you know is that snow is harmless. Well if you know that then out of pure curiosity, will you not try to feel it? Will you not try to mold it into some shape? Will you not try to lay down on it because it is soft? Will you not then move your arms and legs to feel the snow around your arms and legs? There you go. Someone has ‘rediscovered’ making the snow ball and the snow angel.

That may have felt a bit abstract, but we do have evidence of this from history. People built pyramids in different parts of the world without having communicated with each other. Why did all of them built pyramids and not cubes? Well because they had the same goal: a stable structure.

If you are not religious, then you may think, “what the point of living if I’m repeating things that have already been done?”. Well, I like to think that each life creates endless ripples. Your ripples might only affect your nearest friends and family after you are gone, or it may affect the entire world. As an example, let’s say that you plant a tree in your lifetime and then you pass away. The number of people that will benefit from the shade and fruits of those trees will be enormous. Once again, many other people have also planted trees, but if we stopped planting trees then eventually we’ll run out.

That is how the world works. We repeat some of the things to keep the cycle going and then come up with new discoveries and inventions to improve our lives.