Everyone Is An Unique Individual Among Many Unique Individuals

Just the other day, I was wondering about the human condition. What does it mean to be human? What makes us special in a unique planet filled with fascinating animals and amazing plants?

It's estimated that there're 7.086 billion people in the world. That's 7, 086, 000, 000 human beings. It's also estimated that each human being exist for less than a nanosecond, relative to Earth's age.

We claim that each human being is unique but how can everyone be unique in the grand scheme? How many beings, among the current 7, 086, 000, 000, are truly unique? How many are special since human beings came into existence some 50, 000 years ago?

We've all been had. We aren't as unique as we were led to believe. We aren't as special as our family, society and country tell us we are. We aren't as special as the advertisers tell us. "Treat yourself to this amazing holiday/ Lexus motorcar/ Louis Vuitton belt because you're special and you deserve it." It's all a lie.

We're all faceless individuals among the faceless masses. We've merely one face among many other faces. All of us are destined to live then die, perhaps leaving scars on the earth with our endless consumption.

Whoever cares about the individual blades of grass these daffodils have? Do you look at each grass blade and wonder about their greenness?


Or these yellow droplets of flowers. They're individuals, aren't they? But do they assert their individuality? Do they demand that we look at each of them in turn, to smell them, touch them, tell them that they're beautiful?


Even these Venetian Masks. They're just masks. Mass-produced masks whereby countless copies exist.


I thought that I was being too misanthropic, too critical of my own species. After all, I'm a human being too. If I absolutely believe that human beings are merely pimples on Earth's face, then what other truths could I grasp for me to want to survive? Maybe a shift in perspectives is required.

We're unique individuals among many unique individuals, true, but we aren't faceless. We're stars, among a constellation of stars. We sparkle in a galaxy that sparkles.

Perhaps we're still faceless, but faceless in a different way, faceless in a way that would allow us to live boldly. Knowing that we're individuals among many individuals, that there're fewer people looking at us than we imagined, knowing this could be liberating. Knowing that we're stars - just like those stars that we've admired... yes, we can be kinder towards the selves that we've denied and hidden away.

Perhaps we're just one among many, but there's power in being one, power in being one of many.

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