A man says to take the road less traveled by
And one day, people begin to listen.
So pretty soon, the road less traveled by grows familiar.
It suddenly loses its magic
And becomes just another dirt road.
Which goes to show, individuality eventually leads to conformity,
And then we’re all back at the beginning.
So tell me.
Are we really original?
Is everyone actually special?
Because I think it may just all be a lie.
Nowadays, there is constant pressure put on us to be different, stand out in a way that is unique or fresh. However, this pressure doesn’t come without yielders: people who will break the rules because it is simply easier than facing the task at hand. So people struggle with this constant threat to remain creative. The tussle continues in an exhausting, never-ending loop that eventually cycles back to them caving in. They cheat. Copy cats, mimes, and plagiarizers are born. Because let’s face it. When the goings get tough, most people would rather fake their way through the battle than surrender to their weaknesses. So that’s the process of the transformation of originality into conformity.
http://thereflectionofhim.blogspot.com/2012/05/follow-leader.html
For instance, in classroom settings, students crave examples before they try activities themselves. There’s always that person that says, “Is there a model” or “I don’t want to steal any ideas, I just want to make sure I do it right.” So does doing it right imply following the guidelines set by someone before them? Does this, in turn, actually imply raw individuality or is it just an editing system that finds the correct balance between old and new? To answer this, we can refer to the definition of “original” given by dictionary.com. It states that it is something “arising or proceeding independently of anything else” (1). This suggests that in order for something to be truly unique, it cannot be stemmed from the thoughts or ideas of anyone else.
Therefore, are we inadvertently closing the doors to originality when we step in to give advice or instructions? The response is yes. This is hard to ignore given the fact that the only real solution to this problem is to isolate someone from birth and never give them the opportunity to interact with or hear from any other human being. This sounds absurd and it is, which is why no one has done it and the reason that complete originality cannot be ensured. However, in an odd situation, a person could be isolated long enough to create wildly, imaginative thoughts, leading him or her to become mentally ill. In this way, it is the case that originality is linked to insanity.
Some might object to this theory and counter with stories of people who travel against the norm even though their actions might be considered weird, inhumane, disgusting, or wrong. Yet, aren’t the thoughts of others fueling their actions? So if placed in an environment where those “normal” thoughts didn’t exist, would they find themselves faced with the same beliefs and desires? It is a question to consider since originality has been encouraged and taught from youth.
However, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if eccentricity didn’t exist. Our thoughts are never entirely our own because they are actually just a compilation of those of others surrounding us that have accumulated over many years. This buildup is really just a showcase of our unity, and what’s better than being part of a team?
Although most commonly thought otherwise, it is true that individuality does not exist, so in place of the phrase, “Be original,” we should instead say, “Be flexible.” Have the ability to bend others’ ideas into a mold of something expanded off them because in this world, that’s the greatest level of creativity anyone can really achieve.
1) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/original?s=t
Discussions about originality are always fascinating, so I always try to hop in. As a musician and an artist, I’ve often struggled with the idea of originality. I try to write a song and think “Dang! This sounds exactly like this other song!” or I try to come up with an original art concept and come to the conclusion that this is too similar to this artist’s style. But I’ve learned to embrace a lack of complete originality (key word “complete) through some mini-experiences I’ve had. I’ll just present two. The first one I had stemmed from a four-part documentary on Vimeo called “Everything is a Remix.” It deals with a lot of tricky aspects of current society like intellectual property on the Internet and, of course, originality. It presents progress as a series of slight changes, an evolution. You can’t jump from single-celled bacteria into a frog in terms of complexity. “Original” thought is the same way. It requires building upon ideas, whether those ideas come from nature or other people. So I thought that was interesting. The point is not copying. It’s assimilation of all the experiences we’ve had, our different influences. It’s not complete originality. It’s originality of that particular arrangement of building blocks that have already existed. I recommend that documentary.
The other experience happened just recently in a class that mentioned creativity. The professor said, “Creativity is not complete originality. Complete originality is only possible after a stroke when your brain does something funky that it’s not supposed to do. Even though this moment might occur, you’d forget it right away. You wouldn’t be able to put it into language because language requires building on things that already exist.” Even now, I’m paraphrasing this professor. This is not a completely original comment. I guess I find all this comforting.
Learning requires some degree of imitation, whether it be in language, art, music, math, etc. But that should be the pupae stage. After learning the basics, people should need to get up and groove and do their own thing. With your metaphor, they need to follow a path for a time, then break off and start trailblazing. So I appreciate your comment: “Be flexible.” We can really only expand on the legacy of the human race. That, in itself, is really something.
I really like your spin off of Frost’s poem. From a very early age we are told to be leaders, flawless models for our peers. The obvious question is-if all of us are leaders who is going to follow us? We all seek to be original at the expense of not learning how to follow in the footsteps of others. Perhaps this is the most important skill of all. After all, we are all in this together and we have to build on the work of others to make new discoveries, have new ideas, and make new art.
Though it is true that when direction or advice is given, originality and creativity ceases, I think there is a bit more to consider. In many cases, the direction that is given is the way by which a particular problem, defined by people, is to be solved. If someone has invented all of the aspects of a problem to be solved as well as the framework he used to create it, an unfamiliar individual will have no idea how to solve the problem unless the terms of the problem are defined for him. An example of this could be geometric proofs. Unless a person is given information about the postulates that are used to compose proofs, they will not be able to compose the proofs using the commonly accepted notation and language.
I really enjoyed this poem and the message it conveyed. I feel like we live in a world where sure we all want to be original, but we don’t want to stick out. We are so afraid of not being accepted that we lose ourselves trying to be something we’re not. I believe that we are all original, but our minds are clouded and we think that it’s not “cool” to be original when people don’t want to be your friend. I think that to be truly original we need to be our true selves and not care what others think, but I find it hard to believe that people are going to stop caring what others think.
I find this to be a very interesting post. I think that it is a good idea in theory to be original, but as you broke it down, I guess it isn’t possible. What I would say would be a better goal for society is to be differentiators. Differentiators are the innovators who develop the things that we love the most. The story of Apple is an amazing story of two guys who made themselves different from everyone else, in fact, their motto for a period of time was, “Think different.” When people think outside the box, society improves greatly.
I really liked how you started your poem and connected it to Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled.” It is interesting how those who stand against the norm often bring about conformity. It is exemplified in history with MLKJ, who stood against the norm and became a leader of thousands. Fashion is changing everyday and often those who first step out on a limb often create the next fad. Vampire books were considered a weird topic for goths until the Twilight books came out. I do think to some extent everything is conformity, but each person does put their own individual spin on it.
Your blog is very well written and I really enjoy the poems that you begin each post with. I particularly like this post because it reminds me of something my high school English teacher always used to tell me: “Every story worth telling has already been told.” In reality, there are no completely original ideas left in our culture, only new spins on old ideas.
Additionally, I liked the part where you mention education. I personally believe that any originality that we have inherently is crushed by education. We are taught from a young age to do things like everyone else does. Write your story this way, play your game that way and always listen to what others tell you. Then eventually we are asking for examples of work out of fear of retribution for being original in our thoughts. If our society really craves originality in the we thin it does, we need to change the way we teach and think if we ever hope to have any semblance of originality.