23 February

You don’t perceive how much our thoughts and tastes are shaped by our desire to belong to a group, until something goes ‘out of fashion’ and you suddenly find it ridiculous. At the time you definitely didn’t find it ridiculous, you needed that hair with a passion, to belong. You thought it looked amazing. What we take to be our most intimate, personal likes and dislikes are shaped by our desire to belong to some social group. What music we like, what ideas we find compelling, who we love. All the striving for belonging, for identity. For status. And then very rarely something breaks through that peer pressure bubble. Usually some catastrophe, personal or social. Right now there are bubbles like this operating all through peoples’ lives, that seem like ‘the most amazing thing ever’, and which in a few years will seem ridiculous. Kitchens that look like white sterile mortuaries. Wankpanzer utes. Hard flooring. Puffy jackets. Taylor Swift. Combustion engines. And so on, and on and on.