One of the things that is important in my own value-system is to cherish eccentricity. As the author points out, the entire race is becoming more and more homogenized.
I'm not going to spell out a list of eccentricities. Oddly enough, if I did a good job of it you guys would just vote me down.
I will, however, point out several of the ways that society is creating more and more conformity: sites like this, the use of medical diagnosis to cover simple human differentiation, the use of various mental illness labels to cover formerly fine behavior, widespread rampant consumerism teaching people they are all basically the same consumer, use of new laws to control what is or isn't acceptable, use of social intervention as an excuse to make everybody's private behavior now a public concern.
The species desperately needs outliers. We need our (peaceful) Ted Kacinskys And we're getting better and better at finding them early and fuzzing them out.
> the entire race is becoming more and more homogenized
Not necessarily. Improved communications do increase the mixing rate of different cultures but they also allow subcultures to form more easily. Just walking down the street this weekend in London and observing the range of different fashions displayed - urban casual, gothic, cyber-industrial, 'traditional' english (guy in a straw boater and summer jacket). Even 50 years ago such diversion from the norm would have been viewed as downright peculiar and is now taken for granted.
I'm not going to spell out a list of eccentricities. Oddly enough, if I did a good job of it you guys would just vote me down.
I will, however, point out several of the ways that society is creating more and more conformity: sites like this, the use of medical diagnosis to cover simple human differentiation, the use of various mental illness labels to cover formerly fine behavior, widespread rampant consumerism teaching people they are all basically the same consumer, use of new laws to control what is or isn't acceptable, use of social intervention as an excuse to make everybody's private behavior now a public concern.
The species desperately needs outliers. We need our (peaceful) Ted Kacinskys And we're getting better and better at finding them early and fuzzing them out.