Why do we....

.....buy a Corvette - arguably an ostentatious, "look at me" vehicle - customize, individualize and personalize it...then join a Corvette club?

I'm not really singling out Corvette owners, but they were the inspiration for this post. (You'll notice I use the pronoun "we" throughout this). I saw what was most likely some sort of a club event in Watkins Glen, recently. There were a number of Corvettes driving by and each was different, yet the same.  Like wild animals living their solitary existences, they had all come from their respective garages to converge at the watering hole, only to disperse again.

This made me reflect on the question of why we humans do things to set ourselves apart - cars, clothes, hairstyles, tattoos, lifestyles or whatever - and then seek others to feel "included". We very much value individualism, yet at the same time, we have a need to "belong". In some respects the two would seem mutually exclusive. We want to be individuals, yet we want to be part of a tribe.

Why is that?

I don't have any ready answers, but I'm sure some dude with a "PhD" and a bunch of alphabet soup after his name has already sorted this out in a paper somewhere. But hey, I'm only a Standup Philosopher, what do I know?