I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the social chaos lately. It’s not limited to just the US. It seems to be everywhere. What’s causing it?

I suspect it’s because parents have raised children without limits or accountability and thus remain highly narcissistic. They grow up unaware that they have an overblown sense of self importance, without the early parental demands to achieve any real skills that would naturally set them apart from sameness. We see the arrests for disruptive behavior on airline flights and the wide adoption of the term “Karen” or a “Kyle,” meaning, someone who makes demands with a sense of entitlement. They think they are special! Going out a “Full Karen” means you left the argument in handcuffs.

It wasn’t until someone on Twitter pointed out, that the world is becoming more the same over time and that gave me an idea. The more I thought about the idea, the more in made sense in my head, so I’m throwing it out here to think about.

I’m starting to conclude that in the days of social media, combined with the evolution of sameness, makes it harder for the non-achievers of the world to stand out and be considered as special as they see themselves. Without accomplishing any real standout achievements, they act out negatively when they don’t find the world agreeing with their narrow and often wrongheaded points of view. These adults with arrested maturity are desperate to be recognized as value-producing individuals, yet they never did anything to earn that place in the world. They are otherwise, as someone once said, a waste of clothes. They aren’t great at anything and would otherwise go unnoticed, and are most of the time.

Consequently, to regain that lost attention and to feed their own narcissism, some push absurdity to the point where they will say and do just about anything to get the attention of someone, even if it means standing in one place screaming at the top of their lungs just as they did in the grocery isle when they were two. It worked back then. It should work now! They demand that it work now!

What’s now obvious is that absurdity, for the most part, is what drives TikTok. Take a look at the most popular clips if you have the stomach for it.

Is there anyone anywhere who looks at someone tattooed from head to toe, or wearing more hardware than Home Depot and thinks they are something unique? I for one don’t. I wouldn’t notice them twice. They look like everyone else tattooed and pierced from head to toe. More importantly, most of the time I can predict with high accuracy their political and social leanings, yet they think they are unique and special. Nope. Do any of the extremes strike you as unique or interesting? No, not really. Sorry. Does any of it strike you that these are original thinkers anymore? The very fact that we can accurately predict their opinions is strong evidence that there is nothing original about them.

Individualism comes from the achievement of something. Hopefully it’s doing something positive. Absent the ability to be successful at anything positive, some go negative. Sorry, but tantrums don’t count for much outside of your five seconds of fame.

The individuals who stand out the most as unique are those who achieve something that required skill or talent. They give back through what they create and they are the ones changing the world. The shortcut is to look outrageous and say stupid things ultimately won’t get anyone all that far in life, and it’s a shame when people have to learn that past the age of three.