"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."
- George Lois
The reference is to creative thinking, not so much creative art. "Thinking outside the box" is a current way of saying the same thing.
Why is it called a "box?" Not because everyone who acts within the box thinks the same way.
The box is more like a prison, confining people through social (peer) pressure to ways of thinking, acting, doing, buying and believing that are acceptable to a limited few who hold power few others recognize.
The box is not a line drawn in sand. Sand lines may be easily erased and redrawn. Or they get washed away with time.
Thinking creatively is an act of daring, sometimes equivalent to shaking your fist in the face of a police officer. Just as the cop could have you arrested, community pressure to conform can act to confine a creative person to a social prison of ostracism or rejection.
Part of the inherent problem with creativity is that, of necessity, the creative thinker must go beyond the bounds of social acceptability in order to discover what is possible (if not previously thought of) and what is socially within the bounds of community standards. Social standards themselves are only stressed when someone steps beyond them.
Creative thinkers are seldom venerated within their lifetimes. More often they are rejected or treated as pariahs who want to upset the established applecart. Albert Einstein, though respected by many during his lifetime, was abhored by many too. In the half century since his death, he has gained the status of a demi-god of physics.
My conclusion from this? If you want to leave the world something truly worth remembering after you die, be prepared to suffer rebuke, rejection and unfair criticism while you live from those who will leave nothing worth remembering.
Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to find a foothold on acceptance for a cause that is greater than any of us.
Learn more at http://billallin.com
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Comments: 13
great, and I have to come and visit you at your com. will do it Bill, will do it soon.
Those who are successful at showing others they can succeed outside the box gather (pun noted) some very interesting, though odd, friends and followers.
Those inside the box follow in fear, just as the sheep follow the lead goat to slaughter in an abattoir. Only those outside live free.
The only risk to being successful at collecting friends and followers outside the box is that a leader might create his or her own box. This is how cults get started.
There are, I believe, no true friends inside the box. True friends may only be found outside the box. Only they know what the commitment of a friendship entails.
My method of approaching new situations, especially those that are critical, is to ask "What are the alternatives?" Often I am the only person who sees alternatives that everyone thinks are obvious later.
Maybe each new thought should be followed by a question.
Some people outside the box want to be inside, but feel rejected. Others are comfortable outside and would not want to be inside. A few (maybe more than understand themselves) are troubled and mystified outside because they aren't certain where they want to be.
Success in anything is accomplished with confidence.
All people crave a level of social acceptance. Masilow's Hierarchy lists it as a fundamental human need. Acceptability leads to accessibility; to resources, aid, succor, assistance, knowledge, insight comradery, etc.
The most frustrating thing is that acceptance by those living in boxes seems too often only to come from joining them in their box, or by showing that one lives in some other socially acceptable (to them) box.
The odd duck is most often treated ugly. As you said; "..rebuke, rejection and unfair criticism.." When people become discomforted by that which they do not know or understand, the fear causes them to create a safe distance and maintain a buffer zone. Which leads to the pains of rejection being foisted upon the outsider.
Life, does indeed hurt outside the box. Some would say that is why so many of humanities most creative people have suffered the ills of alcohol, sex and drug abuse. They are trying to medicate their pains.
Creativity, thinking outside the box, the paths less traveled, a mile in another's shoes, the view from a mountain top, use your head for more than a hat-rack; these sayings called to me when I was a child, and they have been my watchwords for more than thirty years.
I don't think of myself as a masochist or martyr, but sometimes I wonder.
However, inside or outside the box, life is tough. People turn to the addictions and diversions you mentioned no matter which side of the wall they are on.
In a sense, we are all masochists and martyrs. These are survival strategies.
What we need to learn is effective survival techniques, which include people skills and knowledge about how to deal with the unexpected and the tragic. Teaching these to children would prevent many of the problems that boxers and ex-boxers face so often. The means of doing this was provided, fairly completely, in my book.
We celebrate the ones who have succeeded with new Ideas while hammering everyone into a mold, usually chosen by someone else.
I think some creative thinkers are rewarded in their own lifetime.
Steve Jobs is the first one I think of. Steve continues to create and succeed.
Thinking outside the box is really liberating. It's scary, but I prefer to tell my kids that the fear is rewarded with never having to look over your shoulder and worry about knives in your back. (mostly because they will come at you straight on. Plus..it's hard to hit a moving target.)
Mariana...I think that being raised in the manner I was raised helped me think outside the box a lot too. My parents were very scared to be thought of as different, both of them, in different ways. I had to think outside the box just to keep up with the insanity. Plus, most of the women in my family are brassy broads...so I had good examples. I have one aunt who used to ask..."Why do you care what others think of you?" and expected an answer. I think a lot of people throw off that comment, almost as an insult or an afterthought.
Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.
Cena, I doubt that we disagree that much. We would find common ground if I had time to define my terminology more thoroughly. In my experience with international forums, I have found that I disagree with others rarely when we each have time to elaborate on the meaning behind our words.