On the topic of individuals

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure - if you add stopovers to the count as well - to have visited six different countries, and in this context, I am saddened by how easily we tend to generalize: people who come from the country X, behaves in a way Y.
Of course, we can look at things as statistics and add up percentages of people from different populations who have given characteristics, but there's one thing that's important to keep in mind: when face to face with a another person from another country, it's extremely important not to generalize. Basically, you do not face "a person from the country X", which is why you should not form the assumption that "this person behaves in the way Y". No, you are faced with an individual, to whom you owe the common courtesy to assess her based on her personal characteristics - not based on statistics for people who come from the same country as she does.
And there are many other contexts in which the fact that a person belongs to a group of people does not automatically justify us categorizing her as belonging in a certain basket - as long as we do not know the individual person, we have no basis for categorization.
(Translated from Noget om enkeltpersoner)

All people are customers

In our current, highly commercialised society, with its extensive freedom of choice everywhere, we have to realise that all people are customers - in the sense that in virtually every relationship we are part of, we can consider ourselves as items that we have to make available for sale. If I want a job, I must make my skills marketable; if I want to socialise, I must make myself sufficiently interesting to be let in; if I want to enter into a relationship with a significant other, I must sell my qualities to this person.
We are however in the situation that as citizens, we do not have to sell us to the nation; just like parents in typical families have a monopoly on the product they offer to their children - and we can also be so fortunate that through an advantageous sale we have made earlier, we live on old market value - there are both employment relationships and interpersonal relationships that exist on the inertia inherent in such relationships - but basically, one can just as well come to terms with it: I am a commodity, my surroundings are my customers, and my relationships to them depend on my market value in their opinion. And, of course, the other way around - for my outside world are also goods, I am their customer, and my inclination to buy depends on their market value in my eyes.
It may be a bitter pill to swallow - and of course you can try arguments like "but my friends accept me for who I am". Of course. Because you are worth it. Or - which should be a matter of particular reflection - because you are still selling on the basis that at an earlier stage, you had a market value, which was sufficiently high for you to still enjoy its afterglow...
(Translated from Alt er kunder, originally published September 12th, 2013)