@TheGibson maybe so. The freedom to individuality is something I think about a lot. Integral to this issue is the issue of control over the lives of individuals. Control over individuals doesn't necessarily have to be overt. A lot of control lies in the inability to choose any real alternatives. I don't remember a house because I want to rent a house. I rent a house because the system has dictated there is no other possible course of action.
@TheGibson and so people are controlled socially both through overt, covert, and even nonexistent but implied surveillance, aka self-policing (I refer to this as the concept of signage) to control social behavior, and controlled structurally by limiting ways in which people are permitted to engage with the world.
@TheGibson and then there's what I call Advanced Signage. This is when an entity with authority, such as a police officer, directs a course of action but simultaneously has no interest in enforcing their authority. The best example I have of this is when I was traveling through California, and parked in a polloff just off the freeway that had a sign telling people not to park there after sundown. A cop drove by, didn't stop, but told the people in the lot to move via their bullhorn.
@TheGibson realized I referenced what I call signage without elaborating. Strongly connected to semiotics, the study of signs and symbology and interpretation thereof, I have this idea of signage as another method of control. Signs can't actually make is so anything. They only convey information. However, by converting this information, people are conditioned to police their own behavior because the inanimate object directs them to a specific action 1/2