#individuality — Public Fediverse posts

The individual is the "atomic unit" of #morality. Sort of like the atom is to chemistry. From a moral standpoint, the level of the individual is really where all the action is. The best place to find it, to exercise it, to appreciate it, and to improve it. Each instance in its own (possibly unique) way.

A corollary: we should exercise caution whenever joining or supporting groups or collectives. Since all but the most courageous of them will want our morals always to closely match theirs in order for our contributions to be optimized. Or perhaps even noticed.

#individuality
#tribalism

What Are We Going to Build Together?

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.pressenza.com/2026/09/what-are-we-going-to-build-together/

Comparison and Contrast

Comparison is dumb.

There will always be someone
smarter,
prettier,
richer,
funnier,
more talented,
more articulate,
more successful,
more spiritual,
more emotionally aware—

and someone
poorer,
uglier,
clumsier,
more confused,
and dumber than you.

So what?

Look up long enough, and you’ll feel inferior.
Look down long enough, and you’ll feel superior.

Both are lies.

Another person’s brilliance does not diminish yours.
Their beauty does not make you ugly.
Their success does not make you a failure.

There is no human scoreboard.

You are not here to outrank everyone else.

You are here to become yourself.

December 26, 2011, edited and expanded August 2026

So recently, I’ve been using a gay dating app, and I’ve seen some profiles saying things like “no woke stuff.” And honestly, I can understand where that feeling comes from. Even though I’m not someone who thinks people should push their political views on others, I can see how some people might get tired of constantly feeling judged. Sometimes they just want to meet someone in a space where they feel comfortable.

Nobody should be judged solely based on their background or identity. People aren’t consistent in every aspect of their lives. We’re full of contradictions. If people stopped putting gay people into this one “woke” box, they’d probably see a huge variety of people with completely different views, personalities, and values. Being gay is just one part of who someone is. It doesn’t define everything about them.

#LGBTQ #gaycommunity #politicalfatigue #identity #individuality #stereotypes

A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

In addition to, not as a substitute for, individual responsibility, there is a collective responsibility.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 1 “Boyhood and Youth” (1913)

More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/8…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #teddyroosevelt #theodoreroosevelt #collective #individual #individuality #mutualresponsibility #personalresponsibility #responsibility #togetherness #socialcontract

✮ To That Potted Plant ✮

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A quotation from Theodore Roosevelt

[… T]he individual virtues, and the necessity of character as the chief factor in any man’s success — a teaching in which I now believe as sincerely as ever, for all the laws that the wit of man can devise will never make a man a worthy citizen unless he has within himself the right stuff, unless he has self-reliance, energy, courage, the power of insisting on his own rights and the sympathy that makes him regardful of the rights of others.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 1 “Boyhood and Youth” (1913)

More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/8…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #theodoreroosevelt #teddyroosevelt #character #citizen #courage #individuality #moralcode #personalcode #personalresponsibility #rights #selfreliance #success #virtue #worthiness

A quotation from Emerson

Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2

More about this quote: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #emerson #ralphwaldoemerson #beyourbest #beyourself #divinegift #doyourbest #emulation #giftsfromGod #imitation #individuality #integrity #talent #uniqueness

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 AD to 1900 AD)

Nietzsche critiqued traditional Christian morality, predicted the crisis of European nihilism, and introduced foundational concepts like the Übermensch.

Source: Twilight of the Idols (compiled via Google Gemini)

#GreatThinkers #philosophy #nietzsche #existentialism #psychology #history #individuality

Be your true self. The world doesn’t need copies—it needs real people.
#Authenticity #BeYourTrueSelf #Individuality #BruceLee #Quotes
https://quotes.thisgrandpablogs.com/be-your-true-self/

Collective Opinion Unseen, Unspoken?

Philosophers discuss if most of our beliefs are learned from others, not created by ourselves. This affects our idea of individuality.

#Philosophy, #Beliefs, #Individuality, #SocietalInfluence, #CriticalThinking

https://newsletter.tf/most-beliefs-learned-not-made-philosophers-say/

Philosophers are discussing if most of our personal beliefs are learned from our environment rather than created by ourselves. This idea suggests we might not be as unique as we think.

#Philosophy, #Beliefs, #Individuality, #SocietalInfluence, #CriticalThinking
https://newsletter.tf/most-beliefs-learned-not-made-philosophers-say/

A quotation from Bertrand Russell

People do not always remember that politics, economics, and social organisation generally, belong in the realm of means, not ends. Our political and social thinking is prone to what may be called the “administrator’s fallacy,” by which I mean the habit of looking upon a society as a systematic whole, of a sort that is thought good if it is pleasant to contemplate as a model of order, a planned organism with parts neatly dove-tailed into each other. But a society does not, or at least should not, exist to satisfy an external survey, but to bring a good life to the individuals who compose it. It is in the individuals, not in the whole, that ultimate value is to be sought. A good society is a means to a good life for those who compose it, not something having a separate kind of excellence on its own account.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-30), “Individual and Social Ethics,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 6, BBC Radio

More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/838…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #administration #control #economics #goodlife #government #individual #individuality #management #order #organization #planning #politics #society #system

A quotation from Baltasar Gracián

As many tastes as heads, and as different.
 
[Tantos son los gustos como los rostros, y tan varios.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 101 (1647) [tr. Duff (1877)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #beliefs #bias #differenceofopinion #individuality #minds #opinions #preferences #tastes

Topiary at Levens Hall, in Cumbria. Over 350yrs of interaction between the gardener and the tree. Two completely different kinds of will and determinism. Co-construction at its best.

#gardening #garden #Individuality #character #community

#Truth Collectively wins better for us all as a % of Truth together (if truth is done together).

Your Truth can #change and is assumed to improve and reveal the onion layers of usual (mis)understanding and we get better at seeing examples / expressing / doing it all / #encouraging others to use logic mainly but also more human #empathy #learning #circles #examples of #individuality / #imperfection.

Seems hard but accepting we're unique is powerful if done acceptingly together and more often.

Michigan Daily: Say goodbye to your individuality. “I always thought the phrase ‘be yourself’ was so stupid. Obviously, you’re being yourself, who else could you be? With the rise of TikTok aesthetics, I’ve realized that in actuality, we all are desperate to be absolutely anyone else. The boxes have been created. Go choose one. For the cost of a few hundred dollars and an obscenely high […]

A quotation from Bertrand Russell

In our own day […] there has been too much of a tendency towards authority, and too little care for the preservation of initiative. Men in control of vast organisations have tended to be too abstract in their outlook, to forget what actual human beings are like, and to try to fit men to systems rather than systems to men.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-30), “Individual and Social Ethics,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 6, BBC Radio

More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/838…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #authority #control #freewill #humanity #individual #individuality #initiative #management #organizations #power #systems

🚨BREAKING NEWS: #Brains are unique! 🚨 #Stanford researchers discover that averaging brain scans might obscure individual differences. Who knew that lumping together complex human brains could miss the nuances of individuality? 🧠🤯 #ScienceIsHard
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/04/brain-scans-individual-versus-group.html #Unique #Research #Individuality #Science #HackerNews #ngated

I still consider Scott McCloud's 1993 off-the-cuff definition of "art" in #UnderstandingComics to be the best definition I'm aware of (the emphases are his):

"Because of its independence from our evolution-bred instincts, art is the way we ASSERT OUR IDENTITIES as INDIVIDUALS and BREAK OUT of the NARROW ROLES nature cast us in."

#individuality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Comics

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@bielsubob/116502691975393549

Understanding our uniqueness

Why does the DMN (Default Mode Network) vary so much from person to person? Because it underpins deeply personal characteristics that define us, such as personality and values.

#individuality #personality #dmn #consciousness

Google search results don't know
I'm autistic. Schizophrenic. In Sabah.
With my specific history and context.
The algorithm surfaces the most popular advice,
not the most accurate one.
Popular advice is written for the average person,
who doesn't exist.

#mentalhealth #autism #schizophrenia #selfawareness #technology #algorithms #search #truth #identity #context #life #awareness #neurodiversity #individuality #reality

The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same

"From the generic hipster cafe to the ‘Instagram wall’, the internet has pushed us towards a kind of global ubiquity – and this phenomenon is only going to intensify"

"The homogeneity contrasted with the overall hipster philosophy of the 2010s, namely, that by consuming certain products and cultural artefacts you could proclaim your own uniqueness apart from the mainstream crowd – in this case a particular coffee shop rather than an obscure band or clothing brand. “The irony of it all is that these spaces are supposed to represent spaces of individuality, but they’re incredibly monotonous."

"This homogenisation is not just a phenomenon of our own moment; it is a consequence of changes that happened long before algorithmic social media feeds, and is just as likely to intensify in the future."

"When her cafe started selling coffee online, Facebook and Instagram seemed to throttle its reach – unless it bought advertising and boosted the social media company’s own profits. It felt like algorithmic blackmail: pay our toll or we won’t promote you."
>>
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/16/the-tyranny-of-the-algorithm-why-every-coffee-shop-looks-the-same
#globalisation #homogenisation #culture #sameness #uniformity #monoculture #GlobalUbiquity #hipsters #LifestyleBrag #Instagrammability #uniqueness #authenticity #individuality #instagram #cafes #consumers #habitus #NonPlaces #DigitalPlatforms #algorithm #TechnoFeudalism #refeudalisation

A quotation from Cox, Marcelene:

«««««
Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there’s always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires.
»»»»»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/cox-marcelene/58711/

#quote #quotes #quotation #child #family #independence #individuality #parenting #stubbornness