INDIVIDUALITY AND THE COLLECTIVE
An age-old debate: the primacy of the individual vs. the collective power of the community.
"There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal".
-George Santayana, The Life of Reason
The individual is the only reality. Everything else is a by product of that fact. The truth also contains the fact that we are born and live in a symbiotic relationship to others. We are not born without our mothers and cannot survive and flourish without a family and community that allow us to learn and gain maturity to stand on our two feet. I am not criticizing the reality of the collective life as it is a reality and necessity for human existence. What we do have to face is the pervasive and almost unconscious influence that collective reality creates which ultimately decides how effectively the individual embedded within it's web is allowed to become a truly autonomous individual with the ability to think freely against collective wisdom, to grow and change in ways not envisioned by the group and the ultimate gift of being allowed to express the particular and individual gift we have inside us that needs an opening to manifest. All real change, discovery, genius and exploration comes from the individual fighting to breakdown barriers and expand the frontiers of human endeavour. The role of society is to develop and perpetuate a structure that allows human life to survive in a hostile environment: safety and stability are it's watchword. These are not bad qualities. We would not be here without them. But to move forward we have to struggle against the fences of social constraint to meet the challenges that surround us. We need to recognize that most of the problems that confront us through history are reflections of the exaggerated effects of collective action: tribalism, nationalism, violence, fear, prejudice, stereotyping and a practiced ability to refuse to see the truth beyond our own small domain. The danger of the future is the jarring collision of tribal parochialism and cultural pride butting up against a world that is quickly intermingling but causing ripples of paranoia as this blending of peoples accelerates. It is interesting that at a time of rapid and improved communication around the world we are simultaneously confronting a kneejerk reactionary movement which denies the reality of what is happening and would rather blind us with nativism and terror. We are reaching a fork in the road where we need to be able to leave the old ways of survival behind that functioned well in a sparsely populated and scattered humanity. We absolutely need to understand the particular familial, educational, national and cultural conditioning upon which we continue to rely for dealing with a world that has moved far beyond it. It is knocking on the door and we need to know how to answer the call and take the steps that will lead us to a better future without damaging and possibly destroying that growth before it has a chance to be born.
