Daily Times

Sir: Embracing our individuality has been an imperative part of achieving personal growth and happiness. Individualism is viewed as a strong leadership quality, which leads to innovation and creation. Furthermore, it is vital to the formation of our identity. However, while being different does have its benefits, the question of its practicality in modern society arises. In a utopian society where everyone is unique and ‘different’, individuality is by default, lost.

Today’s society enforces the need to conform to the masses to maintain order and ensure stability, making individualism truly underappreciated. Without this quirkiness, everyone would be the same and life would simply become miserable and monotonous. Society conditions us to think that ‘different’ means ‘dangerous’ or even ‘threatening’ even though in reality uniqueness is what causes progression and diversity. For example, Vincent Van Gogh’s art revolutionised the way artists expressed themselves through paint. His multifaceted methods paved the way for future generations of artists and inspired many more. However despite his roaring success in present time, he remained largely unappreciated despite being an extremely prolific artist during his lifetime. He was alienated and ostracised by his people despite his efforts, causing him to take his own life shortly after. His suicide illustrates the pressures and difficulties individuals have to face in order to truly express themselves, and the loss of possibly greater art and culture that he might have produced.

Individuals who tend to pride themselves on being different tend to live happier lives as they are not restricted by the judgments of others. By pursuing their passions, they excel in whichever field they choose as they are motivated and interested to learn and improve, thus improving the quality of their work. By pursuing their own endeavours, these unique individuals tend to be better leaders as they are not afraid to take risks think outside the box to solve problems.

While we can agree that being different is better for individuals, we should also analyse its effects on society as a whole. Individualism gives rise to capitalism. In a society where an individual takes risks and makes a fortune out of luck and determination, a monetary imbalance appears. This imbalance forces the less fortunate people to abandon their individuality for better paying jobs in order to live comfortably while a small percentage of the population enjoys most of the world’s wealth. Moreover, individuality does not guarantee success. For example, only 1.1 percent of musicians actually achieve fame and stardom, the rest having to work multiple jobs to pay rent and pursue their passion in the hopes that they will be discovered, which a majority of them do not. In a more collectivist society, every person’s needs are cared for and they are valued for their contributions.

To conclude, while individualism is greatly beneficial in order to preserve art, culture and identity, it may be detrimental to society as a whole. The race for success and wealth causes people to be so engrossed in themselves that individuals begin to lack compassion for the less fortunate, creating a grossly unfair hierarchy that needs to be abolished in order for humanity to survive.

MUHAMMAD SHAUKAT HAYAT

Islamabad