3. INDIVIDUALITY
(the unilateral)
‘Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called.’ - J.S. Mill
The cultured loam, the breath of roses,
Root needs poised on the edge of a knife
Is the metaphor I choose for the idea it proposes,
That I only find myself by losing my life
In what I share with others. By devotion to a group,
Able to call forth an aspirational; whoop,
The unilateral thrives in the soil of life.
But the soil that grows me may also suppress me.
When acidity is critical, some cultivars are susceptible
To isolates of the unholy Zeitgeist nietzschi:
With their strong individuality they’ll make me suggestible,
An imitative one among a faceless many.
As the power of demagogues may lose me my dignity,
So mass consumerism will regiment the gullible
With its carrot-dangling style and pandemic persuasion
Drowning discretion in soma-pop¹ and cola.
Another form of standardized, cultural communication
(The limits for taste being set by the dollar)
Sows expectations of gangs, bangs and mayhem
In the viewer, who finds in the funny farm asylum
From his own true need to be programme controller.²