Why is it important that someone and anyone should not be special, original, different, out of ordinary more gifted than has been my primal question always, which pressure and dilemma I still try to understand. There is a strange play of bullying for not being gifted and bullying if one is very gifted. How to know what is true is to find out yourself. In world today we should all be average not to raise any attention or eyebrows as we are watched and labelled. To fit in is what we try to do and it is desperate as we are policed to fit in. What is extraordinary then when it can be pushed overboard just because it cannot be tolerated or it does not fit in? Do we become extraordinary depending on what kind of values and aspirations we have or because one sees in oneself something others do not? If one desires to succeed as easily as possible one gets accustomed to and blends in imitating and enjoying the imitation and benefits it brings. This however is not the pattern of thought for a person who wishes to make a change in her life, do something worthwhile and innovate. Pleasing everybody does not please innovation nor culture to be variable and as I personally see it is not a life worth having. There is a strong sense of fear in people and this was very clear at university and is within art. Pressure to make the best possible authority pleasing result is there and it is making results looking somewhat similar, as if we were not moving as fast as we could.
How to protest the state of things when there is authority of wealth, positions and punishments which in their mildest are silencing, humiliation and shutting out? One obviously has to believe in one’s gut and protest after protest, speak up. How about when there are hundreds of others around but they are clueless, don’t want to protest because they are afraid of authorities or they are perfectly content in their oblivion? There are a lot of people who don’t wish to cause a commotion, any kind of noise that might make them look suspicious and would risk their opportunities. To me we live in a world of fear and the greatest losses are those of losing work, connections and opportunities to make money because we live for money.
To do things for money and career is not good enough especially if one is an artist and especially when one is a teacher.
http://chronicle.com/article/When-Youre-a-Professor/231515/?key=ST5zJ1E9YnNDMCo3Z2xLYzcGbHBtZBpzMiFAP3siblFUGA== “ consent to being experimented on.
The ethics regime is strangely silent”
