It is no new revelation that human beings have evolved into a race of narcissistic, too-intelligent-for-our-own-good, hairless apes.  We think we own the planet.  We believe we are masters of our own fates.  Science and technology do our bidding.  If there is anything that cannot be explained, anything that hints at the slightest indication of some fault that possibly lies within us, we blame someone else’s God.  Each new generation is more spoiled than the passing one, spoiled to the point of utter ridiculousness: we do not own up to our mistakes, we want it all and have no intention of working for it, we want attention (and those of us that pretend they don’t, want it even more), we are followers who rely on Google and television and pop culture magazines to provide us the necessary language making us sound smart so that we fit in and know how to properly insult someone. 

And yet, underneath the exterior of the glamorized teen pregnancies, the homophobic, beer infested frat parties, the slutty love lives and broken condoms and romantic comedies, the weight loss programs, political scandals, wars, starving children, global warfare for natural resources, zealous (delusional) Marlboro Baptists freaks, apathetic educators, cars, cell phones, money, mental disabilities and physical disorders - everything can be traced to a small set of categories: Daddy issues and small penises.  To believe that each and every human being contains this vast amount of intricacies making one wholly distinguishable from another seems a bit naive.  Don’t get me wrong, everybody has their own personality, and some of those personalities clash with other personalities.  People have enough different interests that allow them to be categorized - but that’s just the thing, they can be categorized.  We have social cliches like hipster, slut, goth, emo, jock, athlete, bro, cheerleader, vegan, feminist, radical, hippie, gangster/gangsta/thug, wigger, gay, drama, nerd, geek, bitch, religious, conservative, liberal, etc, etc, ETC.  One way or another, you can and will be categorized based on given characteristics and behavioral traits.  And what does this say about you?  You are not that complex.  There has never been someone on this earth at one point in time that does not resemble you - even in the least.

Not only that - as much as we’d all like to believe our problems are unique, they aren’t.  The way you handle them - that may be unique, but granted, someone else is suffering from a cocaine addiction.  Someone else cuts their wrists.  Someone else has to buy cars and a big house to compensate his small genitals.  Someone else is having plastic surgery and wears a shit ton of make-up because she’s an idiot.  Someone else is sleeping around with god knows who to settle that intense need for warmth and human touch.  Someone else is having difficulty sleeping at night.  Someone else feels lonely and as if they have no friends.  Someone else is a single parent.  Someone else has cancer.  Someone else hates African Americans, gays, and/or Jews.  Someone else is having a hard time finding a job.  Oh, and you’ll love this: SOMEONE ELSE IS IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE THEY CANNOT HAVE, YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE.

In this day and age it is so easy to psychoanalyze yourself and other people. 

“I overeat because I have trouble dealing with my emotions.” 

“I hate Black people because my father did and so did my grandfather and so on.” 

“I sleep with a bunch of guys because my father never gave me the love I needed as a child.”

“I do things that are self-destructive to my body because I feel like I am all alone, I am depressed, and hurting myself allows me to feel something…anything.”

“I am rude to other people because I got tired of them walking all over me.”

“I stay in abusive relationships because I feel like I do not deserve any better.”

“I criticize my daughter about everything because I’m really insecure about myself and have made a lot of mistakes.”

The list goes on and on, and I’m sure you all can think of much better examples than I can right now.  My point is this: you may think you are this uniquely complex individual that no one can possibly understand, that your fate somehow exceeds that of everyone else around you, and that no one can possibly understand you.  Well, guess what?  You could not be more unoriginal and simple.  Whatever you’re going through, someone else has been there.  Whatever you may be thinking right now, someone has had those thoughts already.  Whatever intense feeling is ripping you apart right now, someone else has felt that, and more.  This is not to say that we are all doomed to this inevitable sameness; that we should all go kill ourselves because we have no hope of being original.  Originality can still be obtained in some aspects, but the point is this, we’re all in this together.  You would think that after so many years of human history, we would start to get it, you know?  You would think that we would stop hating on each other, stop ostracizing one another, stop acting as if we are shocked a person could do such a thing - because it’s all been done before.  We are all bound by our unconsciousness, and when you get right down to it, we’re essentially the same at the core - human.  And not only that, the fact that we have not changed, advanced for the betterment of our kind, only proves that we are not as complex as we think we are.  We’ve still got a long way to go.  That is all.

Written by Arthur C. McWilliams IV