Individuality is The Cause of Stress

It's something to think about. Hi my name is Aaron. I'm a second year university student majoring in Anthropology and Philosophy, and today I'm going to talk to you about how individuality is a cause of stress. Now in my Anthropology course we have an online discussion forum, and I chose the topic of individuality. Now I'll read you my first post here: During class when the prof was talking about how we are immersed in pop culture and that we were all wearing pop culture that got me thinking. In an abstract sense if we are all wearing pop culture how individualistic does that really make everyone? In this consumer society we believe that material expressions can define who we are. So does everyone else! Is there such a thing as an individual in this type of society? If so then how does one attain it? It's a bit of a philosophical conundrum. So in that sense I think pop culture may actually be keeping us "dumber". What's wrong with just simply "being". So much of who we are is based on feedback from the social realm. Is social feedback really that important to being an individual? Or counter to that, maybe being an individual is detrimental to creating a society that actually works together to gain collective knowledge? After all we established in class that we are social creatures that.. who for some reason place a huge significant importance on being individualism. That was my first post, and that first post got quite a few other posts mostly agreeing to some extent some disagree And I posted again later on actually just today and ah.. I'll just read you my post here Last year I kind of wrote an essay about this. In it I happened to quote an anthropologist by the name of Mircea Eliade (I dont know if I pronounced that right) in which went like this "Mircea Eliade and others who emphasize that until human beings leave tribal, agricultural existence, they live in an eternal present in which time follows a cyclical pattern of days and seasons. Emphasizing that "from the point of view of anhistorical peoples or classes 'suffering' is equivalent to 'history,' "Eliade claims that archaic humanity has no interest in history or in the individuation it creates." She then further explains this point "Eliade's point that the "crucial difference" between tribal humanity and its descendants lie in the value "modern, historical man" gives to historical events -- to the 'novelties' "that once represented only failure and infraction. In tribal society, one becomes individual, one becomes an individual, only by botching a ritual or otherwise departing from some universal pattern. In such societies, one differentiates oneself, becoming an individual, only by sin and failure. The individual therefore is the man or woman who got wrong the planting or fertility ritual, the hunting pattern." So I guess modern humanity seeks to be individual and to be told their unique so that they can be remembered in some, no matter how small, way. If archaic humanity did not care about individuation then why do we? And i came up with 2 examples the second is way better but ill read you both Just thought of an example maybe of my argument. Think about when people get drunk. When a person is drunk they are not thinking about the past or the future (unless they've had too much to drink) they are in the now. This may be why drinking is appealing because being in the now is satisfying. When your drunk with your buddies individuality is not stressed as much, if at all. Do you think about how much of an individual your friend is when you guys are drunk? Not with me were just having good times all in all. So in that sense striving for individuality can be quite stressful because it takes us away from the now. andd my other example is a sporting event.. i used football how many.. howmany of you guys have gone to a football game? how important is individuality there? I've hugged strangers, and met lots of new people at football games. How stressed are you at football game? very little if at all. Think of it as a little experiment that connects indiviuality to stress. Of coarse I can be completely wrong but... It's something to think about.