A social individual

There are indeed quite a number of ethical issues regarding sociability and human relationships. Does being a hero makes you more social- as you are sacrificing for the greater good- or does conforming to norms make you more social- as you are a cog in a large wheel, and if you do not perform well, the wheel cannot spin.

This to me lies in the crux in being individualistic or sociable.

When you watch war movies, very often you see the hero braving his personal life for the sake for his family, nation or tribe. And it makes him/her endearing, likable and heroic. He steps out of line for the sake of his community- doing what most would not do. And on the other hand, you see a family comedy where everyone toes the line and not wanting to step on another's toes- and resulting in quite a number humorous happenings. In fact, the extent of which one goes to length to conform is almost of comfort and telling everyone that one is not alone.

And therein, this cement the idea of holding a sociable person- in spite of his ordinariness- over one who is individualistic and who might perform the job a hundred persons.

A social person in this sense is easy to understand, easy to relate to and allows a sense of continuity which is comforting to everyone. He might be a clown or a joke, but the function lies not in it's ability to generate work so to speak but rather in the comforting thought that he is of no threat. And this idea of knowing one's place is crucial in that even the hero in the first instance is fighting not for breaking of a system but rather the continuation of an existing system- and therefore he/she is exalted rather than condemned. In his danger, lies the comfort of continuation of one's existing way of life.

The individualistic person on the other hand denounces the community. The individual believes that in order for a community to survive- we must be tolerant to views of others in spite of the differences. By extension, the community survives only because the individual exist.

And therefore as a twist to a family comedy, an individualistic take on it- who not be denouncing the family but rather exaggerating the differences- and providing comedic references by not trying to show the together-ness of the family but rather by showing the cool-ness of each individual family member, and therefore making it desirable for anyone to assume the role outside of the movie screen.  They are stereotypes and caricatures but nonetheless they are a collection of largely similar characteristics of which we make fun of rather than be tolerant of. And only by laughing at the prejudices and stereotypes, can we recognize the differences in all of us.

And at the end of the day, everyone recognizes we are all different- in spite of any orientations we might have- and at the same time, we too recognize the need to live with one another but we attempt to split the two apart only for one to easily spill into the other category. And therefore, rather than pushing each other into different continuum's, it is best to recognize that we are both achieving similar ends but have a different mean of doing so.