The cult of uniqueness: why has otherness become the biggest cliché?

Or: how the slogan "be yourself" became a mass product

If there's one thing that makes nothing special today, it's being different. The world is full of unique people - to be precise: uniquely dressed people who are as different as the different colours of fashion brands with the same logo. Everyone wants to be different, and that's why everyone will be the same. Equality and diversity. Personality, in box.

Being unique is no longer a status quo. It is a commodity. A product on the shelf, labelled "self-realisation". Buy it, post it, add it to your bio. A bit of spirituality, a bit of vintage, a bit of ADHD self-identity - and you've got your identity.

Personality is an industry today. It is called: self-branding. As if "yourself" is a logo that needs to be developed, maintained and regularly updated. "Be yourself" now means: make yourself a character. Be characterful. Be distinctive. Be "someone" - even if there is no reality behind it.

The personality industry knows this. That's why it produces templates:
- an introverted, but profoundly artistic soul,
- spiritual, but relaxed,
- ambitious but sensitive,
- ADHD, but productive,
- magical minded, but a regular psychotherapist.

And people choose which stereotype is "them" and then build their style, their taste in music, their relationship dynamics around it. All of this is, of course, infinitely "individual".

Anyone who wants to become different today is most likely to become different according to a template. Because true difference is: Quiet. It is not ostentatious. You are not looking for a follower. True uniqueness is not intentional. It is not chosen. It slips out of you - because you're no different.

But it is not for sale. It cannot be posted. It is not compatible with personal branding. True uniqueness is often uncomfortable. It's embarrassing. It may not look good in the feed. And therefore no one wants it.

So we choose instead: a special tattoo, an unusual hair colour, a controversial quote. It's as if the diversity would not be an existence, but an external attribute.

This brings us to the real irony: collective hysteria about individuality is exactly the herd mentality of the socialist uniform of the last century. Only now everyone is the same in different ways.

Today, the suspicious person is the one who does not want to be unique. Who does not want to stand out. Who is simple, quiet and has no "story". Because he has no trauma narrative, no small-town coming out, no new-wave identity construction. They are not interesting. And yet they are the ones with the real eccentricity.

That's when true uniqueness emerges, when you're not looking. When you don't want to "live it", "take it up", "represent it". Just or. Because there is nothing else you can be. You don't want to be something else - but coincide with what you are. And sometimes it is very different. Sometimes very similar. But it's never done.