hawa ali drammeh | 8.10.2024, 2:00am
we need to stop diluting individual creativity.
as i was writing buildspace manifesto for my club at UW, i began thinking a lot about how in our society, institutions, clubs, daily interactions, & in the way we describe various cultures, we often split people/communities into two buckets:
we never leave room for anything in between or anything else, its either one or the other.
i have many arguments on why collectivist societies are better for the survival of humanity than individualistic societies, and i have equally as many arguments for why individualistic societies are better in terms of getting people to do what they truly want to do and not letting their thoughts & feelings be dictated by the collective.
in all cases, i’ve come to understand that i only support one type of outlook on a society/life: those that emphasize and support the idea of:
being individualistic within the collective.
i wonder if there is already a term for this? if there is i have no clue and don’t really want to look it up. i’ve been trying to get in the habit of exploring my raw/pure/honest thoughts that aren’t influenced with what other thinkers online have said. long way to say if it is a thing already i’m glad and i’ll find out after i finish writing this essay and exploring my current thoughts.
as i mentioned earlier, this binary way of thinking about how people show up in the world (i.e individualistic or collectivist) translates directly to our daily interactions and even clubs at school. within courses & clubs @ my school, i’ve noticed a huge push and emphasis on group work, group projects, & group thinking. there is a push to make sure students are a part of a collective at all times and this notion that its better for students to be in a collective and that you cannot reach peak intellectualism or gain EQ or success in the real world if you aren’t constantly a part of the collective— i think, this is a disease.