Heroes Not Zombies

I’m a great fan of Seth Godin’s work. His latest book is “We are all Weird“. Seth’s great at picking an eye-catching and provocative phrase (remember the purple cow?). So, he makes it clear what he means by “weird” –

In this manifesto, I’m not talking about weird by birth, I’m talking about people who are making an affirmative choice to be weird. Most people who make that choice are paradoxically looking to be accepted. Not by everyone, of course, but by their tribe, by the people they admire and hope to be respected by.

The key element of being weird is this: you insist on making a choice.

We all need to belong. Seth focused on that in his book on “tribes”. We like to associate with like minded people, with people who share our values and beliefs. In short, with people who share our choices. But we also need to know that we are all unique, that we are individuals. Remember the battle cry from “Braveheart”? FREEDOM.

Well, we all need freedom. The freedom to choose for ourselves, not being the least of the freedoms we need.

In “We are all Weird”, Seth shows how over the last century or two the concept of the “mass” has come to the fore. Mass marketing, mass consumption, globalisation of brands which seek to treat everyone as the same. Politicians like that. It gives them control. Marketers like that. It’s gives them the control. Goodness, those who seek to tell us all what’s best for us in health care irrespective of our individual needs, like that. It gives them control.

But the world is changing. It’s easier than ever now to express yourself. It’s easier than ever to be your own person, to make your own choices, and to find the others in the world who share those choices, to find your tribe. And this is completely changing the game. Power is shifting away from those who want to control the “mass” and into the hands of those who celebrate their uniqueness.

We’re seeing that in Medicine with the frustration of health care professionals and patients at being corralled into protocols and guidelines based on “evidence” which is statistical analysis of group experiments extrapolated out to be applied to the “mass”.

Read this book.

I recommend it. Read it and share it with your tribe. Be part of the change in the world. Be a hero, not a zombie.