We like it or not, we all are born among societies that engrave their definitions & standards on their walls. Those definitions & standards either flow moderately or sweepingly based on how open & civilized the society is. A moderate flow secures an innovative environment for those who want to swim in different directions & achieve meaningful goals. on the contrary a sweeping flow will crush any of those who try to do good but differently .. incurious to the conception and imagination of the individuals.
A lot of people give in to what people around them are up to in order to blend in. And the process goes painless or painful based on how much they do resist the flow. And it’s a kind of betrayal to one’s true self. I quote Thomas Davidson here: “What you are will show in what you do”. It’s famous to be Edison’s but the quote is found in Davidson’s book “The Education of the Wage-Earners”. Well I’m not a fan of Edison anyway. So my point is bending who you are comes with a long-term debt.
For instance the measure of success & failure as well as when and how to start a family are very relative .. and it’s all based on the perception of the society. This might make sense since we live among those in the society and share common interests and sometimes common tasks. But this shouldn’t cross the line to the personal spaces of how we personally perceive things and the small details of one’s way of life. Those personal spaces are where people can actually excel and bring good things to those societies. I think we can all agree that if we all do the same things the same exact way, we eventually will produce the same output. And this could be dangerous if those around are ignorant and actually move things backwards instead of forward.
Societies usually feed the freshly born their definitions of success & failure, their best practices regardless of how efficient they are in addition to their expectations .. I find one scene from the movie “The island” quite fascinating as it simulates the reality in many aspects. The scene where replicas are put in incubators and mentally fed images and goals for their lives for a pretty long period of time. Once they leave the incubators, they all share the same goal and the definition of what’s good & what’s harmful for them. Back to reality those definitions & expectations can be troubled sometimes. They are different from one society to another .. and the other dimension would be the time for the same society.
Those definitions & expectations usually push people into forms .. and after a while everyone born is not very different from their mates in the same society or you can say tribe. I think a society in principle should be a framework that provides support and sponsor one’s free will & innovation when they want to do good differently. Well at least this is my interpretation. I think societies go after the sweeping flow model because probably it’s risk-free .. it’s the best practice they know so far etc. but it doesn’t always guarantee the best way. Taking risks will always be outcast by the vast majority of societies although everyone will praise the outcome of it if it’s good .. and rebuke it if it doesn’t yield a success! Which is clearly a stupid call!
So follow your own path .. play your own game .. you won’t score in every match but you will build your own experience moving from one to another. Phenomenal achievements don’t come either by incremental enhancements or through the well-know paths. The unbeaten path could be expensive sometimes but the achievement at the end gets you covered. The achievement may range between your peace of mind to a groundbreaking accomplishment.