Originality, authenticity and self-identity

During lunch, my girlfriend brought up the topic of one’s original ideas and it sparked a discussion between us on originality and self-identity. She said,” A person who doesn’t act blindly based on other’s opinions and acts on one’s behalf is original and self-conscious.”. To which I replied,” Yet a lot of our personal opinions are diffused, our understanding of the world comes from society, relationships, education, upbringings, etc. Newborns learn from observations and imitations, and we as adults also learn from hidden social clues and experiences. When you say one acts on his or her own-self, how often do we probe into one’s identity and trace the root of originality, to the influences that cultivate our introspection and retrospection?”
Obviously I believe in one’s originality, but repetition without internalisation is mere pragmatism, like a sheep that blindly follows the shepherd, a person who exchanges sovereignty with comfort and convenience. The missing key ingredient is well-known but many fail to exercise - critical thinking, the ability to decompose ideas and reconstruct them as your own. As humans, we survive by mimicking and evolve via conscious thinking.

However, deliberate thinking is hard and energy-consuming as we are biologically inclined to short circuit our thoughts and rely on intuition, which becomes more prominent in the age of information explosion and artificial generative intelligence. Another reason is our fear of absolute freedom, to ascend into highness that no compass can work and withstand the turbulence before you reach clarity. Revolted by the dizziness, we take the antidote prescribed and install artificial goals in our head, feeling energised as we drown ourselves in our pursuit. Occasionally, the effect wears off and the emptiness devours us, maybe that’s how existential crisis creeps in.

I am no exception and I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes I acted as society expects, to justify my existence and exhibit my worth without thinking why.

When the thinking is done for you, you are done.

The greatest dilemma of life is that we are simultaneously a meaning-seeking creature yet bears no inherent meaning itself.