Why Is It Okay To Imitate

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

In a world where the cult of individuality flourishes, imitation is condemned. “What makes you unique?”- is a common question that is asked at an interview to candidates. Even the judges of the X factor are guilty of this. The average person, who is guided by financial motives or came to get a job just because "it is necessary", has to pull the answer by the ears.

Uniqueness is a set of inherent characteristics of a person. How his character and appearance are combined. What he loves and how he does his job.

It is interesting that the desire to be “not like everyone else” is often brought to the point of absurdity. A person sticks out character traits that are not inherent in him (often destructive in relation to himself or other people), and this looks feigned and fake. By underestimating the insight of others, we risk tarnishing our reputation: the action of mirror neurons has not yet been canceled. Insincerity and internal-external contradiction give out “unique” with giblets: and as a result, no one wants to be friends with such a person.

Few manage to understand in early childhood what kind of power drives them. I have a friend who became interested in occultism in kindergarten. In elementary school, while the kids were shooting at each other with sticks and overturning flowerpots in the dining room, she was interested in mysticism, numerology and communication with spirits - and how did her hobby go! Every fiber of her soul, every word, the sound of her voice, her eyes and her reasoning - all screamed about her individuality to the masses, although she did not make a single deliberate effort to demonstrate her uniqueness. Thus, she was naturally attractive. She was just like that: she was devoted to her true passion and did not drown it out with what was supposedly "necessary".

I have many hobbies. My mom thinks I'm a versatile person. I love photographing - and have loved since my grandfather introduced me to the camera. For a while, I selflessly clinked everything around and everywhere: swings, flowerpots at my grandfather's work, my first computer. When I grew up, I felt that I wanted something more than flowerpots: but I absolutely did not know where to start.

In my turbulent teenage days, the Internet just came to us - and I had a resource of inspiration. I was especially keenly interested in self-portraits. I was looking for girls who filmed themselves with a remote control, a camera and a self-timer. I took tree poses for some conceptual shots, combined my photos with a picture of a chainsaw snatched from the Internet, and dressed up as a geisha.

My attempts were amateur to the core. A few years later, I laughed: I started taking selfies even before it became mainstream! Later I got acquainted with the concepts of composition, exposure and other photo terms. However, it was imitation that helped me get on my own path.

Imitation is okay because it is a natural process in achieving mastery. Let's call it a more positive word: inspiration from someone or someone else's work. It's like the grammar exercises for working out English time Present Simple: before the student begins to construct their phrases, a knowledgeable teacher will always offer him support in the form of examples. Then the student will have to substitute words for examples - and repeatedly. Only after a while, the student will learn to correctly compose sentences in a given time on his own: and not otherwise.

Judging a person for imitating is like criticizing a child for copying the parent's language in an attempt to speak.

As for me, a person who honestly admits that he is copying someone in order to achieve mastery evokes more sympathy and trust than an "unrecognized genius" who goes out of his way to prove his uniqueness, sucked from the finger!

Why does it annoy us when we are copied?

From self-doubt. We are afraid that something individual and valuable will be taken away from us. It’s like they’ve taken our soul out - and we don’t want that at all. Friends-imitators get on the nerves worse than acquaintances, critics and debaters.

If you are being copied and at the same time you feel dislike for this person, it may make sense to think about what exactly you are so afraid of losing. What in your life would you like to attach a copyright watermark to?

The moment of tranquility comes when you realize that you are the most unique creature a priori, and no one can do your affairs the way you do: after all, the handwritings of our souls are truly unique.

Lilia Cardenas, psycholinguist, writer, announcer, English teacher