Before there was such a thing as “the factory,” everything was handmade.  Before a mechanized process of making stuff, everything was unique.  No one had the same coat of many colors.  Even if you wanted to make an exact copy, it wouldn’t be exactly the same.  The factory made all of this possible.

We find our identity in stuff – made in a factory.  There was a time when identity – every aspect of it; every expression of it was unique and different.

I think that we long for unique and interesting things.  Sometimes we’ll even manufacture it.  Anything made in a factory is not unique.  We will even customize the things we buy from a factory so that we can somehow look different.  That’s why we bedazzle.  That’s why stuff gets ripped.  That’s why even factory stuff gets distressed – so that it all looks different.

Your identity can be in looking the same as others, and it can in looking nothing like anybody.  But like it or not, we all deal with factory made identity.