Opinions Vary: You’re Special
You’re special. Doesn’t that feel good to hear? There is only one you in the whole, wide world. The feeling of being special is an innate function of the human psyche. Of course it comes in a million different shapes and forms, but our primal need to feel special drives much of the world as we know it. Today we are going to examine this phenomenon through my jaded little world-view, and see where it takes us. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure where this is going to go. But this is happening. Now.
Put on your big boy shoes.
Ok let’s take a step back. Since most everyone here is an adult (by age at least), I am going to level with you. You’re actually not that special. I’m not trying to be a dick. I’m just saying. There are 7.1 billion human beings living on this planet. Unless you have some sick mutant power, you suffer the same humilities that all other humans suffer through daily, and pretty much have since the dawn of time. You poop. You sleep. You get hungry, and you eat. As much as we all forget in this coddled modern world, each of us could be wiped off the Earth fairly easily. We are all perishable. No amount of money, fame, success, etc is going to change the fact that one day each of us will cease to exist. I will stand corrected when we find the cure for death, but at the time of me writing of this article, yousa people gonna die!!!
It’s ok little guy.
But don’t be sad. That’s a pretty broad humanity-based perspective. Which gets me to another point of the phenomenon. Being special is relative to the sample. Part of my “Big Fish, Small Pond” postulem. This doesn’t take much to wrap your mind around, but when I was growing up, there was always a hot girl or two in class that stood out physically from the rest. Now if you put that hot girl into a room of hot girls, she no longer stands out as genetically superior. But this is just an example. This situation is replicated in all walks of life, by every subjugation imaginable.
Part of finding yourself in life is figuring out how special you need to feel to live a satisfying existence. Where this desire or need comes from is completely subjective, and I am no psychologist. Some people’s lives revolve around attention seeking like acting or performing. Some people find speciality in making money. Some through competition, like athletes or pro gamers. Some through power. We all find it through relationships. No one makes you feel more special than your life partner, except maybe your mother. Each person decides what they need, and subconsciously seek it out.
To me, a large part of growing up is slowly realizing how NOT special you really are. The older and closer to death you get, the more you naturally realize you are just one spec on a tiny rock floating through the vastness of space. Which is probably a reason people use things like religion, or feeling special, to cope. Our existence is somewhat insignificant otherwise.
#1 on planet Earth.
To bring it full circle, at least we are collectively the most special species on this planet. Maybe we are not mature enough as to acknowledge the existence of more advanced beings than ourselves. Maybe they don’t exist. According to what I have seen from the likes of Neil deGrasse Tyson and such, the chances of us being alone in the Universe are pretty small. But we have yet to publicly confirm the existence of any other advanced lifeforms. So I part with an interactive question: Are we so special that we are alone in the universe? What is your personal stance on aliens?
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