Same

I'm never quite the same two days running, but I think there are certain similarities. Whether it's wise to presume upon similar assumptions about other people I'm never quite sure.

»Difference exerts an uncanny fascination for all of us. Contemporary social and cultural theory exhibits an obsessive concern with issues of difference, and such is the malleability of the term that almost anything can be subsumed under it. This passion for difference seems to be linked to its unspoken and under-theorized pair, «the same» or «sameness». This is not implied, of course, in the deconstructionist notion of difference, but it is implicitly there in much feminist and social science theorizing, as well as in contemporary political activism.« (from: H. Moore, »A passion for difference«)

Think about it: Is your picture of mankind mainly dominated by the idea of sameness or difference? And what does this imply? Do you hold the opinion, that sameness is fruitful/boring, or that differences between peoples can never be bridged? That real understanding is possible/not possible? It depends a lot on these basic assumptions.

'Sameness' has rather a dreary sound to it – even though we're always being told to look for those things we have in common with other human beings. I suppose I like the idea of the integrity of difference, or the much more difficult concept of the possible homogeneity of variety...Ha!!

The same thing repeated over and over; some would have us believe that this is an accurate vision of history, of culture and of our daily lives.

To be sure, history repeats (as tragedy and as farce), and our culture is comprised of many moments of many people doing the same things at various times – the way I read at the bus stop is much like others read at the bus stop – and this has been called Seriality.

All the same, one hopes (ardently, desperately) that some incremental change occurs in this repetition that will place us in a position where changes that are far more radical, and the fostering of differences of a greater range and frequency than we can presently imagine, can perhaps occur.

"Weil ich den Sam e' schon kenn,
kann ich einiges über ihn erzählen:

Es'is always the same mit ihm:
Kaum ist er da, schon geht er wieder!"

"Because I know much about this Sam,
I can tell U something about him:

It's immer das gleiche with him:
>Hello, I must be going!<"

(From: Confingers comments about cosmic creatures)