Individuality Vs. Group Think
On Individuals as Agents
The individual is the only AGENT in the world; people must even represent systems and groups, without people these institutions do not function at all. This is why to change systems, the key is the beliefs and actions of individuals who suffer from systems, and those who manage them too. The individual is everything.
Everything is "individualism" because only individuals act. Things, technology, and organization, these do not act, they must be maintained; otherwise, things, technology and organization stop working.
We must always remember this important point -- at times we may fall into the idea that we are dominated by "evil systems", "machines", "robot bureaucrats", "forces", "historical laws" and so on, but this is a fallacy. We are dominated by people not things, not even ideas either. People make systems work, when people no longer believe in systems, defend systems, AND maintain systems then they collapse.
People make the world happen, and people are always manifested as individuals. Change the view of the agent, then the agent will act in a new way.
On the Illusion of the Group
The individual is the only true agent. From this truth we realize that no one actually represents a "group"! Leaders of collectivism do not actually represent the interests of the group, they represent themselves, they represent their own selfish and biased interests. They disguise their egotism behind social sounding words, symbols, myths and rituals. They claim to represent our interests. They do so by denying our individual interests and substituting a "group" interest. But no one can represent the group; it is not possible in a Social Diverse.
The group can only be represented by the group itself, another word for that is "democracy". Even the use of middle men as representatives is not actually true democracy, because these middle men will substitute their personal interests and views for those of the people.
The group representing the group actually requires full individual participation by everyone, that is, full individualism. Thus, true sociality IS individualism, ironically. The true individual wants to communicate and cooperate. You can be a full individual and be social too; there is no magic about it.
True individualism becomes sociality, as the social idea is held in the minds of millions of individuals; this abstraction then breaks them from egotism via action, and then returns them to the concrete world of Human beings.
On Internal and External Guidance
Groupism relies upon external guidance, while individualism relies primarily on internal guidance. What does that mean?
The individual acts as his or her own ethical agent, the individual learns and develops a moral compass, the individual makes its own judgments, learns from its ethical mistakes and progresses to higher levels of ethical perception and skill. Society provides the individual, through education, mentorship and communication, the basic compass and the cognition of self responsibility. Society (other people) gives feedback to the individual, but the individual is expected to find his or her own way in the end. Only in the case of extreme transgression will society intervene.
In the case of groupism, a personal moral compass is not essential, for the ethical guide lies outside the individual, in the group. In a groupist culture ethical behavior and, in fact, most behavior is controlled by various means, by shame, guilt and fear, by philosophies and religions which deny the reality of individuality and personality, by ideologies that stress group structures such as family, community, lord, party, church, state and so on, and by strict laws that outline almost all proper behavior. Institutions can enforce groupism and in some extreme cases the group mentality is so inculcated within the citizen that they become self controlling.
The goal of a groupism is to control personal behavior by vacating any inner perception and will, and making the group the determiner of all acceptable behavior. Also, there is no privacy, the group digs up your hidden bones and secret roles and makes known all unknowns.
In a groupist society, the individual is weak and undeveloped; the group all powerful, in fact, only the group has a “personality” or “individuality”.
But we know from the discussion above that no group operates as a group, every group is led by an agent who interprets ethics, conduct and law in his interest, from his point of view. Thus, groupism in the end is merely a front, a mask that the leader hides behind. The “group” is a tool of control. The group is his invention or his ancestor’s or predecessor’s invention. Group nonsense benefits the leader who wants to control all people, and the primary means to do this is to remove individuality, identity and personality. And all the intellectual gymnastics that justify group think are designed for this end – mystical, confusing and contradictory theories manipulated in a shell game that hides the individual.
Cage Innoye
Axxiad News