The Need to Belong

There is that uncanny feeling –

That you don’t belong here.

It is an odd feeling –

Being a perpetual alien; a perpetual outsider.

One knows one is at the wrong place –

When one talks “at a different frequency” to everyone else;

When their commonalities are never your commonalities;

When what they value and do is miles away from yourself;

When what they aspire to is a world away from you.

An odd feeling –

Of being alone.

Of being different –

Of being a world apart.

Sure – one can get ‘used to it’;

But, it’s fair to say –

It’s by no means,

The ideal life to live –

Being a world away from others.

I don’t want to bother conform with people vastly different to me –

I would rather be by myself –

But still –

‘Tis a pity, really, that there are no others like me.

A lonely journey ‘tis – a lonely journey ‘tis.

Walking through this world alone.

Like a shadow, like a spectre.

An existence I am oh-so-used to, yet never really espouse.

The Sociocultural Matrix

Humans are inextricably bound to a sociocultural matrix that they cannot escape. It is what defines them, it is a part of them too much. The sociocultural experience is simply an inseparable part of the human experience. All human experience distinct from a sociocultural experience is few, and far in between.

Unescapably bound to a culture
Inextricably tied to a culture
Human experience cannot exist on its own without some reference to a culture…

One is lead to question to what extent is one’s experience of this world truly free –

And how much is tied inexorably to sociocultural expectations, norms and values that we, ourselves aren’t even aware of most of the time.

To what extent is an individual’s experience and behaviour but predictable… manifestations of a broader sociocultural matrix?

They act… the way they do –

Because that is what is expected of them by the sociocultural matrix that inextricably binds them?

There is that theory – where… “emergent collective behaviour” results from “individuals” seeking their self-interest;

Well, I am supposing, that in human society at least – perhaps that may be the other way around.

Individuals are inextricably part of a “collective” – and – I want to daresay –

“Individual free will” is an illusion – an emergent property of the collective manifesting in the individual.

For –
An individual isn’t truly “free”;
They are always “bound” by sociocultural norms, expectations, and values;

People say they have "free will" - yet -

How much of their actions are pursuant - wittingly or not - of society's rules and expectations?

I see all these people, and to me - they just all look like ...

"Mindless" machines... just acting as one would expect a part of the collective to do...

People talk of "ant colonies" acting as if it had a mind of its own -

Well - ... how about the other way around ?

There is a collective, a... "mindless" collective, drifting -

It is composed of parts - namely, individuals - ... who.... are equally - I daresay - "mindless"; Yet they believe in the illusion of a mind...

One can ask the so-called free-thinking individual -

How much of those actions, thoughts, that they have in their life -.... were an inextricable product of the socio-cultural matrix that they lived in...

There may be the illusion of so-called free-will - but guess what -

If you truly did what you wanted to do... regardless of sociocultural expectations / "pre-determinations" - Guess what really happens -

You are labelled an outsider. An alien. A misfit. A loner. Extend it further, and you are regarded as "delusioned", "mentally ill"...

It is difficult to illustrate the true and far-reaching extent of the sociocultural matrix ... because all human behaviour is embedded in it so much.

A human without culture is... impossible.....

A human is inextricably bound to a "culture", like it or not;

Human actions are pre-determined by their culture, their environment.... more than ANYTHING else

This is what I mean when I say that the "individual" is but an emergent property of the collective -

Given enough knowledge of the "collective",

It is possible to "construct" an individual - pursuant of that culture's expectations, norms and values. That "individual" need not have any "free will" or anything at all. They can just follow those EXPECTATIONS of an "individual" in such a collective society - ... and no-one would notice that they were an "imposter human"....

No individual is ever "free".

They are handed a socio-culturo-environmental "platter" at the beginning of their life. And they follow a "well-defined route", followed already by a million individuals before them - through a life-course defined by socio-cultural expectations. From birth, through maturation, till death - ... the "individual" need not even "live" - or exercise free will at all...

And I guess it is in this sense -

Cognizant of such deep socio-culturo-environmental shackles

That the term "fate" was coined;

For -

An individual's life...

Ultimately is less influenced by the decisions they make for themselves -than the socio-cultural environment to which they are born to;

And to which they they must.. rigidly follow - consciously or not;

Just being a part of that machine to which they were born into...

Just being a component of a giant...

===

An individual's life is more or less, written in the stars.

The culture they were born into.

Their ethnicity.

Their family.

The historical era.

Their gender.

The economical background.

The "social" background.

Geography.

Collective thought. Collective ideas. Collective norms. Collective values.

At the end of it all -

An individual's life is defined by these "external" things more than anything else.

It is through a path written in the stars

The individual follows...

Deviate from this path? One asks?

But why? How?... No one can live outside a socio-cultural matrix -

when you leave 1 "path" you simply enter another socio-cultural path;

An individual can never TRULY deviate from ANY such socio-cultural path -

And lead a truly "unique" life.

All individuals are shackled the moment they born.

It is in these shackles of socio-culture that we live, and die.