New Cities/New Soviets

February 27, 2006

Same/different

There is nothing quite so frenetically bipolar as people's desire to be unique and also be like other people. There's nothing you can do about this -- neither one is satisfing in itself or better functionally adaptive. Buy the ticket, take the ride, use as needed.

One consequence: the instability that comes from trying to establish an identity by consumptive choices. Trying to identify yourself by what you buy doesn't give a pure fix of either feeling. No matter how underground or rare a purchase is, someone else has it, and no matter how popular a purchase is, not everyone has it.

Posted by Sam at February 27, 2006 03:37 AM

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