The Screwtape Letters – C. S. Lewis (1942)
(Fictional correspondence between a senior tempter (devil) and his protégé, Wormwood).
Throughout our lives, we are told that we are unique individuals, that there is not another person on this earth that is the same as us, that we all have our own place within this world … then we are taught to comply with the doctrines of others.
Religion teaches us how to all act the same and follow the same path in the same way, education teaches us to be part of a team and to promote a unified identity, and teenagers are expected, by the shear fact of the age they are to rebel and do-their-own-thing … just so long as it is the same as the rest of their peers. Adults often fair little better. University promotes individuality so long as it fits within the framework of the markers and assessors, work-life requires employees to tow the party line and even in old age there is a socially accepted unwritten code that those in their twilight years are anticipated to comply with.
Individuality is more often than not seen in those that are in some way different. The nerds, the geeks, the rebels, the non-conformists … the ones that don’t quite fit in to the pattern pre-set for individuals within this world.