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Most people don't know it, but what they call self-perception is really just our own definitions of ourselves, brought on through logical and illogical interpretations of society's various remarks about us. To be a tad clearer, what we call self-perception is really us trying to edit ourselves to fit our various niche's in society. The whole,"I think think, therefore I am," thing only works insofar that it allows us to realise that we're living, sentient beings because we can realise that we're living and sentient. While we aren't defined solely through our interactions with others, they make up a large enough part of our lives that we spend more than our fair share of time trying to find our niches.

Even those who refuse to mingle in society are labeled through that particular action. We call them outcasts, and whether we turn their backs on them, or vice versa, the result is the same; we stay the hell away from them as though they carry a disease. In reality, outcasts, whether they're exiled physically or just socially, are normal people who refuse to live by society's standards and substitue them with their own. Some are excluded for good reasons, yes, but most are just regular people who can't deal with normal society. They're neither unstable nor dangerous, and the only boundries that keep these individuals away from the rest of us.

Hair, shoes, clothes, etc. All of these are simply various ways for us to individualize ourselves and show that we aren't simply sheep in the herd. The problem with this, however, is that these superficial things aren't what truly make someone an individual. What really makes someone an individual is not just their outward appearence, but also their ideals and their interactions with society, as well as their personal thoughts and actions, but only up to the extent that others can access them. If you can't prove that you're thinking, how can you expect anyone to know you are?

Hell, what people call society is really just our own interpretations of how we think the majority of others view and act. This allows us to justify some our more cynical and possibly unsociable thoughts and actions under the pretense that society is too stupid to understand anyway. It's also possible to take this to the radical extreme, surrendering all we have for the good of "society", when in reality most of the people who do this are really just been taught to do so from an early age, becoming the metaphorical sheep in the herd.