TO THINK
INDIVIDUALITY IS NOT AS BAD AS IT SEEMS
Text: Caroline nogueira
Translation: Raí Santos
Have you ever heard that story that tells that being an individualistic is something bad and that we need
to think about others? Well, what if this is not completely right?
The exercise of looking inside ourselves is easier than it looks like, maybe because of this, some say that
being an individualistic is something so bad. Actually it hurts and we stay exposed to ourselves, without
labels, completely naked.
Being an individualistic means exhaling what we feel without the need of crying out to the world. If we are
not able to love, chiefly ourselves, we might not be able to love anyone else. Moreover if we are not able
to respect ourselves, we might not be able to respect anyone else. If there is no kindness within our
hearts, we will never do an act of kindness.
Being an individualistic means being true to yourself, admit your mistakes, flaws, prejudices; and trying to
live with it all the best way possible. We all make mistakes and we will always do so . It is having otherness, i.e. walk in others’ shoes, trying to see with others’ eyes without having the need of adding a particular feeling or belief to your own life. Have your own opinions, listen to the others’ and be always ready to
change whenever it is necessary or whenever your life takes a different way from what you have always
hoped. The choices of our own are always haunting us, but external factors will always be around.
Being an individualistic means having plenty of awareness that no creature on Earth will ever feel what
you feel and, respecting this fact. Each one has their own life story, their experiences, traumas, beliefs,
values and ways to see the world. If you do not like something, whatever it might be, just move away and
live. There is no secret.
It is extremely natural that we are touched by things that interest us. Even though there is no eyesore in
this so-human feeling. Better than impose any vision, it is to convince with good examples. No one needs
to believe and feel the very same things that you do, because not even about the biological issue, we are
equal, why should we like the same music, books, films, colors…?
The great Oscar Wilde already said “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has
known.” Imagine if the artist had not shared his own vision about so many themes, we would lose many
fantastic works and great classics.
Thus, once empathy is not otherness, respecting is not accepting, individualism is not egoism. It is fair to
think about others, but not before having something to exchange with them. And try not to embrace the
whole world; nothing seems to be so false than trying to please others. When we look more at ourselves,
the habit of looking at the others becomes less and less workaday, and the judgments become nothing
more than opinions.
Always take care, everyone means so many people and the collective thought is quite dangerous or, often,
shallow.
Thinking about the others means being enough free to respect them and not stop being yourself, whoever
you are. Because we are not equal – we will always be similar.
MUNDANO
mag
12