This is where I get out a cardboard box, stand on it, speak in a slightly affected tone of voice, and try not to seem impossibly pretentious but probably failing. If that sort of thing bugs you, click here and play this game where you make little guys throw rocks at each other.

At any rate, so I’m thinking about the whole issue of the greatest good, you know, just kinda bein all philosophical without having any idea what the hell I’m talking about, and anyway what is the best thing in the world- the point of life, even? Well the usual answer, that many people (and I) would subscribe to is that it’s other people, right? Not really so sure anymore. What if that’s just a subset?

New hypothesis: uniqueness. The point of life is to distinguish yourself from everyone else. Things are good if they are different from other things. Think about it- where is it not true? All this talk about being the best whatever- what if it’s not about being the best, it’s more about being the most individual? Take, say, tennis. Why do people try to be the best at tennis? To stand out. If you are the tennis champion of your school, people know that you are the one best person at tennis. If you’re Pete Sampras, the entire world knows how great you are. That’s good.

What’s the point of blending in with the rest of the world? Everyone agrees that it’s useless. Right?

So here’s where the idea melds with my previous ideas: people, and your relationships with other people are the place where I (and probably you) find most happiness. Why? Because, to another person, you’re unique. When you get to know someone else, friends, family, whatever, you realize what makes that person unique, and vice versa. That’s good. Seems that’s also what makes relationships in the sense of boyfriend/girlfriend and even moreso husband/wife appealing- because you can say that one person is the most unique person to you in the world. And vice versa.

In art, music, food, whatever- nothing that’s the same as anything else is ever the best- right? Because there’s always something the same as it.

I’m not articulating this all that well- it’s kind of late, I’m tired. But you know what I mean. And if not, ask me about it, and we’ll get all philosophical, and it’ll be sweet.

Comments:

~ash - Nov 1, 2005

I’d point you in the direction of my social psych textbook to help with this one. First off, its a western thing to value individualism and uniqueness, conformity is not all bad. And sometimes it is good to be just like something, especially in your group. You wouldn’t want your favorite food to be different with each new batch, making each batch unique. For me, I find a lot of meaning in balance and balancing things metaphorically (I’m not so great at balancing things physically). But I like philosophical discussion, we could totally have one sometime.

Brian - Nov 2, 2005

I don’t think uniqueness answers it all. The world would be a lonely place if you were the only one who was anything like you. If no one could understand your problems or advise you how they would deal with the situation. Further, if everyone really was unique, wouldn’t we all just be the same? Unique would be the new same.

“So what is it all about?” query the students at Stubblefield’s feet. My favorite answer, of course, is love. I feel this is different from people. It means love for yourself, love for your work, love of knowledge, a love of mankind, love of the environment and physical world we live in, and of course, love of others (friends, family, etc.)