Individual and society
My friend Jack, who has been negotiating some major life changes of late, wrote me this the other day, under the subject line “Nietzsche knew the feeling….;)”:
Made me think of our conversation from the other day….
“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” – Nietzsche
To which I responded:
The trick is that while some of us long to be individuals, humans are also social creatures. It’s hellishly hard treading that line, because each has its function and its dysfunction. The dysfunction of the social is the mindless adherence to convention. The dysfunction of individualism is alienation.
The quest for balance continues…
:xpost:
lullaby pit 
I have been thinking about some ideas somewhat related in terms of a parable I want to write.
There are people who want to explore ideas/thoughts/world/etc. and not be tied down by other people’s dictums and are fiercly individualistic. These people tend to be the creative and empathic people but often find themselves unaccepted by society on the whole.
There are people who want to do exactly what is expected of them and beyond being mindless about their actions they actual don’t even perceive things that are outside of their mental models of those expectations. Unfortunately this group is often the majority and we can see right now how easily they can be coaxed into doing things (like voting) for things that aren’t in their best interests.
There is a third group related to the first group that is driven to control the expectations of the second group. They move themselves to the center of acceptance and work hard to stay there through “control” of the majority.
I didn’t think any of this idea was particularly novel but I am not well versed enough in the modern philosophers to know who already developed the ideas.
I have been thinking about some ideas somewhat related in terms of a parable I want to write.
There are people who want to explore ideas/thoughts/world/etc. and not be tied down by other people’s dictums and are fiercly individualistic. These people tend to be the creative and empathic people but often find themselves unaccepted by society on the whole.
There are people who want to do exactly what is expected of them and beyond being mindless about their actions they actual don’t even perceive things that are outside of their mental models of those expectations. Unfortunately this group is often the majority and we can see right now how easily they can be coaxed into doing things (like voting) for things that aren’t in their best interests.
There is a third group related to the first group that is driven to control the expectations of the second group. They move themselves to the center of acceptance and work hard to stay there through “control” of the majority.
I didn’t think any of this idea was particularly novel but I am not well versed enough in the modern philosophers to know who already developed the ideas.
I imagine that the control impulse you’re looking at actually exists as a function of both of the first two groups. There are those who want to control to exert change, but there are also those who want to control to prevent change.
I imagine that the control impulse you’re looking at actually exists as a function of both of the first two groups. There are those who want to control to exert change, but there are also those who want to control to prevent change.