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Showing posts from August, 2017
Individuality and Collective Identity Every human is 99.5% genetically identical to any other human. It is that 0.5% that makes each person distinctive and unique, which, for a non-scientist like myself, is a truly mystifying fact. From our fingerprints to our personalities, no two humans are identical, not even identical twins. Yet we also have collective identities such as humankind, tribe, family, social class, profession. This duality between individual and group is something we all easily adopt. We have learnt to separate our public and private lives.  However at some point or points in our lives we face a conflict between our individual desires and the social norms we agree to adopt. This conflict, when it becomes public, may lead to social ostracizing, imprisonment, in some extreme cases, even persecution. The only time when individualism is not only accepted but required is in the arts. Artists, musicians, poets and writers and all the creative arts are assumed