(Disclaimer: These are merely my thoughts. To philosophize is, after all, my job. As you can see, I am against peer pressure, as it can lead to dangerous consequences, from violent TikTok trends to electing and supporting a dictator. I strongly believe that subjectivity is not above reality, hence why I justify it when philosophizing.)
As the writer writes and the farmer farms, the purpose of the philosopher is to be philosophical regularly. A philosopher whose work isn't philosophical shouldn't be seen as a philosopher, and to be philosophical is simply to combine deep thought with existential topics. That's all there is to it in a very basic explanation.
Peer pressure is just one of the many fallacies our genetic evolution, as it is currently, cannot, or at least finds it very difficult, to overcome without conscious effort.
We all contain the experience of our ancestors through our genetics. In the far past, those who defied conformity and herd mentality have found themselves in grave dangers, such as abandonment, imprisonment, and persecution from the conformist collective. The fear of our ancestors being left behind still exists in our DNA.
Thus, even though there is minimal danger, if any, to suffer grave consequences through avoiding conformity, we may still feel this fear which does not correlate with today’s generally safe environment around the world.
Our evolutionary process is blind and slow. It cannot see into the future and it studies only from past and present experiences, so the information from these experiences is passed on to the next generations. Since evolution can only adjust itself to what is currently or formerly presented to it, we as a whole may still fear overcoming peer pressure as if it had high chances of eliminating the possibility of our continuation.
The world is quickly changing and our evolutionary process is not quick enough to adjust to the new circumstances of today’s world. Some of us may still be afraid to experience seclusion, being left behind, abandoned, and so forth, even though the general penalty today is much, much less severe than it was long before we were born.
However, as our DNA adjusts itself to the circumstances of the world at its current state, and who knows how much time it would take, we, or our offsprings, may fear less to protest against peer pressure and other social concepts which are slowly decaying from this world.
With the rise of technology and artificial intelligence, our currently primitive instincts will also decay from their dominance over us, and will be replaced by more individualistic and independence-directing genes. I am close to certain that future generations will be more anti-conformist and more independent in their thinking and behavior, because this current age demands it for our general survival potential.
Those who claim that humans were always and will always be social animals are required to protect their argument against the upcoming metropolitan, industrial, alienating, and solitary age of humanity, which I call the Age of Alienation. In this age, there shall be minimal need for social conformity, social interactions, and anything else that is primarily social.
The deadly advances of machinery and artificial intelligence will slowly take over possibly everything that humans do, from jobs to entertainment, making sociality much less of a need, but more of a slowly-becoming irrelevant desire. We are just the seeds of this age.
It is therefore logical to defy our dysfunctional social desires and urges and oppress them with the power of our logical minds, through the practice of enduring in seclusion. Being alone for very large periods of our time will be a dominant feature in the new age. With the practice of solitary endurance (and asceticism for those who are strong), we will better inform our genetics and DNA that it needs to change in the name of humanity’s survival. We will develop from social animals to solitary ones.
With the power of this new nature, that is the isolating nature instead of the social nature, our natural submission to peer pressure, and everything else that is primarily social, will decrease significantly. Solitary individuality will become more than a concept, but a natural way of life.
