Foisting uniqueness on everyone is itself a cruel status demand

Evidence

Even the most unique individuals will have a lot in common with others. The best we can hope for is a relative originality created in the margins of our persona. At the same time, not everyone needs to be different for difference’s sake. For those at the top, the pursuit of distinctiveness is important for receiving higher status. But to foist the requirement of uniqueness on everyone is unnecessary, unnatural, and often cruel. If we allow everyone to be themselves, this should also provide the freedom to be identical to others. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 298

Categorization

• SEED: A case for why conformity, not just originality, should be allowed — a contrarian essay angle on self-actualization culture.
• XREF: connects to: No ‘real me’ exists free of social influence because brains rationalize desires — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 293; Demanding one be both a person and an individuality imposes an impossible instinctual demand — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2470; Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Individual uniqueness as a value denies equality rather than grounds it #corroborates (0.90) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 690
• Demanding one be both a person and an individuality imposes an impossible instinctual demand #qualifies (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2470
• Destroying individual uniqueness is the deepest horror, beyond legal or moral outrage #contradicts (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1020
• Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands #qualifies (0.80)
• The self’s seeming uniqueness is a mass-produced commodity falsely posed as natural #complicates (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 117