theory of mind.

Does there exist a person without qualms about their place in society?
Are there really people in the world who never sense that they are somehow alienated?

People who are ostensibly "normal," which is most of us by definition but not in practice, do you also go to bed at night ruminating on how you're somehow the odd man out, but only you know it?

I'll be the first to jump to the assertion that normalcy itself is an illusion, pragmatically, albeit probably a necessary one. But entertaining the idea, is there any individual who doesn't think of "average" people as an abstract, unseen group... as the "Others"?

If the answer is yes, then some of us really are outcast, but we'll never know for sure who we are, because one's place in society hinges entirely on the inaccessible perceptions of others.

If the answer is no, if the exception is the rule, then people afraid of being outcast are torturing themselves needlessly, and those afraid of being normal aren't as special as they think -- then being outcast is as illusory as being normal.

With a few notable exceptions that it would be mean to point out. Hot-dog-hat Wal-Mart guy.