“All human control comes to an end when the individual is caught in a mass movement”
C.G. Jung
It seems that we are losing even the idea of an individual. Everywhere you turn someone is talking about groups. They are talking about democrats or republicans. They are talking about the oppressed and the oppressor, blacks, whites, immigrants, trans people, the rich, the poor, and every tribe in between. You have to be placed into a solid box (unless you are talking about gender or sexuality). You either love Trump or you hate him. You either support everything Black Lives Matters stands for or you are a racist. There is no nuance, and there is no mention of the individual. The world watched all cops kill all black men in that evil video (I am not sure of a better word to describe it). No one saw one individual (or four) crush the life out of an innocent individual.
The problem is that people can be grouped in countless ways, and one of your groups is bound to be the oppressor and another one is bound to be oppressed. You may be a black male. You are black so you are oppressed. But you are male so you are an oppressor, part of a patriarchy. You may be a woman of color so you are oppressed, but maybe you aren’t the poorest person and you aren’t trans so therefore you are an oppressor to a less wealthy trans person of color. What about the trans woman of color who had an abusive father and is also an immigrant. This has lead to a hierarchy of oppressed groups. I think white supremacists also have a hierarchy of groups. Both extremes are equally flawed in the sense that they make group identity paramount instead of the individual.
Another issue is that the group can’t think. There is no rationale in a crowd of people. When one cop fires tear gas into the peaceful crowd, others join in with no thought. When someone begins looting a Target, others mindlessly do the same. Mob mentality is a real thing and it is dangerous. This constant talk about group identity just strengthens the chains on the individual, and makes mob mentality more likely to happen. Try having a discussion with a group.
“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.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
So why focus on the individual? Primarily because you are something that you can actually control and improve upon. You can yell at the establishment all you want but that isn’t necessarily going to change it. Even if it did, would you actually want you in charge? Do you really know whats best for millions of people with your immense knowledge and discipline? I bet your family is functioning perfectly and you have complete control over even yourself. Your emotions are always in check. You are never full of rage or bitterness, never anxious or depressed, and every detail is in line. Is your room even clean? If you don’t listen to yourself, what makes you think your ideas are good for the world? Are they even your ideas, or are they your groups ideas?
Thankfully, you can control your own actions and you can become better. You can get smarter, stronger, more disciplined, more caring. You can learn a craft, become a better speaker, practice enduring pain. You can become someone that people rely on in a crisis. You can be the shoulder that people cry on at your fathers funeral. Maybe you can’t figure out the policing problem right now, just like I can’t. Nor can I fix a broken helicopter which is even less complicated. But banging a wrench on the helicopter isn’t going to fix it, just like yelling “All Cops Are Bastards” isn’t going to solve everything that’s wrong with policing. But maybe if you work on yourself enough, in a few years you might be able to actually solve more problems.
“As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin with an individual; it might be any one of us.”
Sorry, two Jung quotes in one post
Becoming a better version of yourself (fuck I hate sounding like a self-help scum bag, so I am sorry if it sounds like that) has far reaching consequences, as does letting yourself fall into the opposite direction. You may start off with your useless self and become useful. You might become so useful that you can start to repair your broken family, you know the one that you see once a year and spend the whole time arguing. Maybe in a couple years you could have a craft that is helpful to your community, you might even be able to hire people and give them livelihoods and teach them a craft. Who knows, in a decade or two it might be possible for you to help the country. It’s a real possibility. When you think of people who improved the world (or made it worse), you don’t think of groups. You think of individuals. Work on yourself.
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:5 King James Bible
End rant for now.
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