Today, Sunday, August 4, 2012, hallmarks Marilyn Monroe’s anniversary of her passing 50 years ago. Odd the connection this Hollywood legend still has on the generation of today. Personally, I liked Marilyn, felt for her tragic life, but won’t mourn her loss today. I had a friend who loved her, one might say a bit obsessed with her…wanted to be her. And then I thought about it. Don’t we all want to be something other then who we are. The millennials seem to be the latest target of self-doubt. In this valley, it’s a common sight. Silicon Valley extolled for the entrepreneurial spirit and great brekthroughs is just trying to fit-in with the “other guys.” Everywhere you go, the techies are stereotypes, even the office buildings are all the same. Colorful logo’s (or walls is some cases), ‘catered’ meals (word loosely to apply free meals), pool tables and large bean bag chairs border the halls of tech campuses. It’s like some guy saw Big (Tom Hanks breakout role) and tried to recreated FAO Schwarz in an office complex. In this media driven, plugged-in generation, with 24 hour news cycles and text messages, who do you want to be? A fragment of your self; a movie star, a celebrity, a rock star, but not you, right? Some character that was augmented to adjust to group think. I don’t think most people notice the change or how they start to copy someone else; they blindly shrink into the new identity. I’m not judging. I’ve done it myself, but I also always felt like I don’t fit in. Maybe wrong time, wrong place. Maybe this valley, touted for its’entrepreneurial spirit, is afraid of indulging in differences? Just maybe this society is not ready for “crazy ones.” Maybe we weren’t ready for someone like Marilyn.
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