The psychoanalyst Carl Jung once wrote in a rather obscure book not known by too many that the more unconscious one lives, the more one will conform to scientific and psychological theories. Difference is constituted thus by actively instantiating that difference. In other words, difference is only a thing because one wants it to be such. Difference ceases to be as soon as conformity kicks in.

Conformity smoothes out differences. Differences are seen as something in need of change, but change in a specific way - change for the sake of sameness.

Sameness can bring quasi-happiness, a smokescreen, a veil, a guise. Achieving the goal of "being the same" or "having the same" itself can be momentary happiness. The human mind is alone, and finding any similarity sparks joy. But this is only an illusion. Sameness is impossible. Identiticalness, a = a, b = b, is impossible. Replicas will have their own uniqueness. Flaws will be present in reiterations. The transient is but transparent temporarily.

The guise of quasi-happiness will be pulled away from those who seek false security in sameness because the goalpost is always moving, dynamic, and fluid. It is diversity itself. As Jacques Lacan would have it, or my incorrect reading of his work, the thing we desire is to never get the thing we desire. Inherently, we know the problem of subsuming our desires. We are desiring machines. But this is because the goalpost is always on the move, not by some primordial being or phantasmagoric illusion, but because difference is inherent to life itself.

The illusion of sameness is perfect. The void it creates sucks the impressionable in and devoirs and gorges on them. The false sense of security in sameness is alluring precisely because of the illusion. The mirror as an object of desire; the face that looks back is almost perfect; the face that looks back is almost a replica that professes this sameness. Yet, we find flaws in it. The twisted angles, the warped perceptions. It is not quite the perfect replica.

But the closest contender is the agora, the marketplace where everyone gathers. In the face of the other, I see myself in an almost perfect imprint.

Yet it is still not that perfect copy.

Because difference is always there. Difference will always be there.

And happiness can be found in the infinite traces of differences.

Postscriptum

Difference is the only sameness...

Self-referentiality is a problem we can never overcome within language.

Alas.

The musings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300. I hope you are well. Happy writing.