As humans we live inside sets of conditions analogous to the way we live in our bodies. We are aware of the parts but only give them much attention when something seems to be a problem.
As I type this I am aware of my feet and fingers but I am not thinking deeply about them. This is how it is with ideas and behavior which define our social lives. We live inside them but only think about them occasionally or in the context of having bumped up against them, so to speak.
For example, we may think very little about the clothes we choose to wear on any ordinary day. For many after a certain point in our lives we have reduced this to something automatic.
We all know the stories about certain persons having several of the exact same article of clothing they wear as a uniform even when they could wear anything they want.
There is thinking behind this, rationalized as a way of eliminating an unnecessary distraction and allowing the person to focus more constantly on important matters.
However, that anyone would orient that much consideration to something deemed as trivial and a waste of thought obviously indicates how important clothing is socially and personally for humans.
The opposite attitude and behavior, of focusing much attention on obtaining and tailoring unique clothing makes perfect sense as well. Likewise, that choice can be rationalized ad infinitum.
To be human and to live inside the conditions of our social lives, those can be generalized as the two extremes: Eliminating the perceived and presented value of a condition or elevating it; either paying attention and drawing attention to it as a display of who we are, or pretending to downplay or erase it.
I have for years when it comes to clothing used the phrase “zero it out from the equation” of social interactions on a given day. I select clothing for business to eliminate questions – or so I explain it to myself, but there is always something else going on with these conditions of our human social lives.
What we are doing here is barely touching on the subject, which of course is not simply about fashion choices or different approaches to the question of what to wear and why.
The subject is more broadly about the conditions we live in as humans which are the equivalent of what we observe more readily in other animals but in our own behavior only become something we think about when there is a pain or we bump up against them, so to speak.
Fashion is a vast subject. Gender differences, and differences in different times and places, have been studied in many disciplines with different focuses. Social conventions of other kinds have largely the same parameters. That is, in terms of values and how they can be understood, they are the same as understanding what clothing means and different approaches and attitudes about how to clothe oneself for social purposes.
Food choices, hairstyle, the way we talk with each other, manners if you please, all these are viewed and employed along the same lines as choices of clothing. They are either highlighted or downplayed for essentially the same rationalizations we bring to all the conditions of being human personally and socially.
Obviously also each person may have genuinely strong feelings and an interest in something, food or fashion, which is not seen as social or other directed, but of course it is because if it is known about that person, it becomes part of the person’s identity either by choice or because others notice it.
Questioning conventions is generally something that happens in earlier periods of life. If it persists or shows up later, it can be properly seen as a point of stagnation.
A small child is fascinated by the movement of her own hands because this is part of learning that part of being, understanding the connections “we” have with “our bodies.”
Similarly, a child or more usually an adolescent may question why people ask, “How are you?” when they may not actually be interested in hearing how the other person is. This is one example of how conditions we live in like our bodies only come to our attention when there is a question or a pain.
But even at those times, the thinking we do is rarely methodical. We are more often than not rationalizing our way through it and applying values according to identity, filled with prejudices and odd feelings.
If we like jewelry, for instance, we buy into the idea that it makes sense to wear a ring or a watch. It makes a statement. We are representing ourselves. We also notice these things more readily on others because they are of interest to us, because we value them and what we believe they express.
But even if we choose not to wear or notice jewelry, it is something that figures in the condition of human social and personal life. If we are actually thinking more deeply about these matters, we need to be able to explain how jewelry fits into the whole human thing. It will have the same range of values and be employed socially for similar purposes as any other thing humans do.
There is much more to say about this, of course, but it makes sense in this context to pause here.
I Dwell In Possibility 