The Dangers of Sameness

While The Giver by Lois Lowry is a piece of fiction, the concept of Sameness is something that can be applied to the real world. What's great about sci-fi is that it gives you a safe place to look at real world concepts.

Sameness in The Giver universe means that no one is different and pointing out differences is considered rude. The whole society functions with everyone being happy and not in pain. And it's a comforting thing to not be in pain and everything working out. But there is a high cost to it in The Giver universe.

What is the cost?

You can't really feel. All the emotions that painful are gone, but so are emotions like bliss and love.

And besides Sameness erasing pain, it also erases diversity. Now it's great having people believe what you do and not having arguments, but differences in opinion is what makes the world so wonderful to be in. It doesn't make it pleasant all the time, but it makes it worthwhile.

It'd be great if we could all agree on what is offensive and what isn't, but that removes thinking about things critically. If you're only shown one way of thinking of course you'll think that way, but you won't truly know why.

So the concept of Sameness in The Giver is beyond terrifying. It makes nearly all the characters basically just robots. Sad thing is that some people don't like diversity in the real world so The Giver gives you a chance to look at the concept of a world without diversity in a safe environment.


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