The most original and authentic are doomed to become banal when they are accessible, cheap, and widespread.
No! It is not the banality itself! It is the uncritical conformity to it! Today, Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” is enfolding in a different fashion: We are all melting under an invisible yet globally pervasive totalitarian trend.
Are we?
Has there left any enigmatic, mysterious, venerated, sanctified, or untouchable phenomenon that has not yet become commonplace, predictable, consumed, and familiar?
You are what you do! Sure! “Thou art what thou dost” is at the center of Martin Heidegger’s authenticity. M. A. MacDonald summarises: Authentic Being is the work of claiming one’s own self through one’s own, self-directed, as opposed to they-self-directed, actions. Inauthentic Being, then, consists of acting according to the will of the they-self, and thus not as oneself.
It is not that the peak of Everest has descended from its throne down to the valley; the base ground has turned shameless enough to impertinently break into the palace of Everest.
To escape the dullness, I too employ myself to seek depth, think, write, and engage in meaningful dialogue. (As long as I can find someone other than the mirror for engagement, or decide what should honestly constitute the meaning…)
Oh, Muktadi Usta! Dost thou see how value hath become valueless? Thou wert right to despise the shallow convictions of the herd.
The dangerous threshold, however, is when the perception of banality itself starts to become banal.
Watch the shivering moon in the solitude of the dark night. Secretly listen to a “not-yet-civilized” tribe chanting. Take refuge in the calming bosom of loneliness. Wait for the sun to rise, anxiously walking alongside mad waves right before dawn.
Thus mightest thou celebrate uniqueness.
Thus, you might counteract the ubiquitous oversaturation, abrasive repetition, wild commercialization, and other banalities of modern life.
Humanity is yet far from being able to fully grasp the potential consequences of the “genocide of myths.”
Are we brave enough to resist prioritizing mass appeal?
Can we both cultivate a sense of “belonging to a community” and simultaneously foster uniqueness?
Nay to the sheer volume of content across the internet! Let us stand out as the freshness of a new breeze—fresh and new as eternality…
What about identity?
Sameness is banalness: Come and flourish your local heterogeneity. You have no place here if you play it safe and aren’t as bold as a blossom. No matter if you provoke strong reactions from the monotonous cricket.
What if you are original and unique? Melodious or horrible, their voices— all birds sing so loud these days! Even true listeners have sealed their ears off with skepticism. Vocal or silent, you will be drowned anyway. Wait in the banality of waiting…
Throw yourself out of this vacuum; yet, as Theodor Adorno has warned, beware not to be socially alienated and let your conscience become a brick in a mentally and spiritually confining wall. J.P. Sartre warned against the dangers of living inauthentically, which might eventually lead to a banal existence, and D. F. Wallace underlined contemporary culture’s superficiality and the banal modern life.
Precious are the “works and words” that provoke thought, excitement, inspiration, and evoke emotional turbulence.
Are you the one who now and then stares at me from the mirror?