IT IS a paradox that whereas we dwell in probably the most supposedly hyper-liberal of ages, society is marked by stifling conformity, manifesting itself wherever the informal observer casts his or her eye.
I don’t suppose this uniformity is peculiar to our occasions. Regardless of our perception that we’re autonomous actors, most individuals fortunately go together with society’s shifting currents, concerning every new perception to be held with strong conviction. That that is the case has lengthy been famous: look, for instance, on the crowds in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, who lend their timeless help to whoever occurs to talk final. Being independent-minded has all the time been a minority sport.
The distinction as we speak is that fashionable know-how allows extra environment friendly enforcement of this homogeneity. Nowhere is groupthink and a marked detestation of individuality extra seen than on this planet of enterprise.
(Overlook for now that companies as we speak are primarily involved with social engineering; their profit-creating perform secondary to their woke mission. Such sentiment was mirrored just lately by John Lewis chairperson Dame Sharon White who, after a £99million loss, stated that the corporate was merely ‘forgoing revenue’. I can not consider a surer recipe for long-term success.)
I just lately got here throughout an article that requested why each firm’s brand appears to be like the identical, with the adoption of nearly an identical black-and-white fonts throughout the tech sector. Whereas there are sensible causes – higher formatting on cellular units et cetera – it’s arduous to suppress the sensation it’s a part of a wider try to negate any semblance of individuality.
Marking oneself distinctively is to ask assault. Higher to cover amid a sea of similarity than to fall sufferer to the orthodoxy’s commissars, who hate nothing greater than a tall poppy.
A key tenet of conformity is a rejection of the previous. Folks, locations and issues are, in the end, the sum of their historical past. Had been you to get up tomorrow with no recollections, you wouldn’t nonetheless be ‘you’ within the true sense. Your wonky enamel and bushy again would stay, however one thing basic would have been robbed from you. Destruction of the previous is the one means revolutionaries can create a contemporary begin. Therefore why Pol Pot and different disagreeable varieties eternally attempt to implement Day Zero.
Had the Khmer Rouge et al simply waited round lengthy sufficient they’d have seen their much-hated enemies within the West go down the identical path voluntarily. No want for all that capturing and shouting – a gradual march by way of the establishments would have labored simply as effectively, as such a march promotes the regular erosion of historical past and, with it, id.
Take Oxford College Press. Based in 1586, it’s the second-oldest college press in existence. One would possibly count on it to take satisfaction in its previous.
Nevertheless its choice to revamp its branding suggests not. Not solely has the font been modified to adapt completely with each different agency below the solar as proven above, however the previous brand has been performed away with.
As soon as accompanied by Oxford College’s coat of arms, which itself is adorned with the phrases Dominus illuminatio mea (‘the Lord is my mild’) and three crowns, the Press is now represented by a stylised ‘O’.
Opinions fluctuate as to what it appears to be like like. To some it’s the opening credit of James Bond movies, to others some sort of pastry. To me it resembles the flushing of a rest room and the accompanying swirl of water as one’s waste is swept away. It’s a becoming analogy for an establishment which seems very happy to flush its historical past, and therefore its id, down the john. Its new branding makes it appear like an organization that sells something from swimming swimming pools to monetary companies. It’s totally bland and freed from character: an ideal illustration of the fashionable age.
Not that anybody ought to count on something extra from a college, in any case. They’re key engines powering our civilisation’s decline. However nonetheless, the rebrand appears to encapsulate a lot of what’s fuelling our fashionable, identitarian, malaise.
This appeared on Frederick’s Publication on September 26, 2022, and is republished by type permission.
