Not to veer wildly off on an irreversible tangent (too late), but according to the Wiki article, Freaks "took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup." Wow. Let that sink in for a moment... and then let's move on.
Some time after seeing Lovett's performance, I silently adopted his little chant. Whenever I witness some behavior that suggests blatant conformity, I hear Lyle Lovett in my head chanting "One of Us. One of Use. One of us." It would be creepy if it wasn't so funny.
I'm neither anarchist nor advocate, but I hope that I have mostly blazed my own trail in life. Occasionally I am struck by the number of people who simply follow the norms set out for them by family, religion, and the media. It's difficult to imagine that people display such disdain -- whether through fear or apathy or simple ignorance -- for the greatest gift that we possess in a free society: the freedom to make choices about our paths in life.
I'm not blind to the fact that for every non-conformist looking down from his lofty tower, there's someone slightly more radical looking down at him. But I'm not talking about living on the fringe or dropping out of society or making decisions that are self-destructive. I'm talking about taking a hard look at the "norms" and stepping outside of them for a moment to determine what makes sense for the you.
I saw the following click-through advertisement today on one of the most frequently-visited websites on the Internet (viewed by millions) and I was simply floored:
An alternate title might be: "YOU ARE A FAILURE WITHOUT A BABY!" In case you hadn't guessed, I'm really bothered by this ad. It is the perpetuation of an idea which is practically hard-wired into the minds of young adults. It infers that the proper formula is: (1) date; (2) get a job; (3) get married; (4) make babies; and (5) achieve happiness. Perfection assured. For many people, the real version would probably go more like this: (1) complete all of the above-listed steps as quickly as possible; (2) run out of steps to follow; (3) have a mid-life crisis; (4) get divorced; and (5) die. OK, so maybe that's a bit harsh (and maybe it isn't, considering the divorce rate and number of mid-lifers in therapy), but the point is clear: the formula is not right for everyone. It might not even be right for anyone. Yet, despite our freedom to carve our own paths -- to shape our futures -- so many of us simply fall into the lemming line and are surprised when we pull our whiskers up from the ground (or out of the ass of the lemming in front of us) long enough to see the edge of the cliff looming ahead. But following the lemming line feels good. The line is right. Practically all of the other lemmings are in the same line. How could the line lead us to failure?
I am particularly bothered by the media's perpetuation of this artifice. The website on the other end of the click-through advertisement shown above states that the service is for you, if "you are 25 or older, a sophisticated, college-educated professional, and are seeking a mate." But while such sites style themselves as guideposts to those who are seeking the path to this promised Shangri-La, there is a fine line between accommodation and perpetuation. The Internet is rife with websites designed to assist daters, brides-to-be, mothers-to-be, and empty-nesters, all of which are hocking wares under the pretense of providing services to the willing. But I argue that such sites do far more to perpetuate these hard-wired stereotypes than to actually serve anyone.
In the end, it's a perpetual motion machine of outdated ideas -- a system of beliefs that feeds back into itself because it is recycled by the media, by politicians, and by religious dogmatists -- all of whom almost certainly have ulterior motives for doing so, albeit cloaked in enticing promises of bucolic dreams. And the impact of this is to discourage independent, creative thinking. That's a recipe for personal unhappiness and eventually, I think, societal degradation. But what do I know? I still catch a glimpse of that cliff edge once in a while myself. Maybe I'm a lemming too.
