Wonderful craftsman ship on the chair. Not something that you see at that often now. There are fewer and fewer craftsmen any more, they are instead being replaced by hobbyist who want a cool skill to talk of when about others of similar ilk and merit. They use it to distinguish themselves from other identical people. However enough people do such "Weekend Tradesmen" hobbies that individuality is about as meaningful as car color setting you apart. They have turned themselves into CMS'. Here is where work goes, here is where sex fetish goes, here is where favorite food goes, here is where hobby goes, and there is where you latest news passion goes, when you add a new one to the slide show the oldest one is bumped off.
A long time ago how a dove tail was assembled told you who made it. The fact that they used a dove tail joint told you who made it. As did what fastening they used; glue, peg, nail, or bracket, told you even more. Now DIY classes tell you exactly what to use and when to use it. Creating a hegemony of style not confined to shops. The Master taught you the way to do it, then each student would make the same joint only slightly different depending on skill, dominate hand, and personal preference.
Now people want to be told the answer rather then find their own. Standardized testing is baneful to originality. It teaches boxes of ticky tacky for houses, 2.3 kids, and Applebee's. This disease of Hegemony started long ago only it is now more rampant and insidious then it was in the past. Just because you have a choice of color does not make it your own. Children spend years trying to catch the hegemony pathogen, then as adults they think they shake it by selecting custom bits of themselves out of the same bin.
At it's core Hegemony is universally expressed as a feeling of wanting to belong. Those who belong to the majority see it as their duty, in their disease addled minds, to point out why another is wrong and in what way they are wrong. For children this manifests as "Cause you are a stupid head" and adults do the same with "facts". News stories are the shield and science sound bites the munitions. They use this to prove your opinion is wrong in front of other infected, who nod and agree with the most riddled body.
The "Ah yes..." regardless of what else follows this, will be a back handed comment about how you do not see the big picture. This is the opening salvo. And whether defeated or not they all end the same, the "Typhoid Mary" says something to the effect of conceding that you can have your own opinion and are welcome to it. This makes them look more rational and whether you "come around" or not you are seen as having slightly less valid an opinion.
This has infected all of society where the healthy are the minority, and the majority claim it is all for the greater good. Just because you can chose your own template does not mean you are an individual, especially if all your divs where named by someone else.
