Often times, especially in the present day, Collectivism and Individualism are made out to be antagonistic opposites. From that, many arguments for one or the other then arise, just as every other dividing force in politics. In fact, the greater portion of modern “politics” in itself is simply a mechanism that serves no purpose but to divide man against himself by affixing limiting labels upon him. (e.g. Left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative etc. etc. etc.).
These limiting labels are my favorite thing to undo, for they are truly the Spells of the wicked causing a non-unified mind within mankind, with which, men cannot see clearly and are then easily guided by the wills of others. Hopefully this little article gives you some insight into what I intend to convey when I speak of a “Unified Mind”, a thing which sees beyond apparent opposites.
I will begin with this old phrase: “Birds of a feather flock together” which could be rewritten as “similar individuals will form collectives”. When any system is erected, whether or not in perfect purity to its archetypal blueprints, (communism, capitalism etc. etc.) the imperfections of Man will eventually rise to the surface and begin to “corrupt” the system away from its perfect methods of operation. This happens because of the above phrase. Groups will begin to form of like mind, which deviate, possibly ever so slightly from the initial modus operandi of the initial system.
The erected system in its archetypal form is a collective, for every single individual within the system agrees with the operating methods, thus they are One group. In this way the erected system is also an Individual for the entire group acts the same, as One being, an individual. When division begins within, and subgroups begin to form, these subgroups are collectives, because every individual within them believes the same principles. However, compared to the initial system in which they are contained, they (the subgroups) appear as Individuals, for each entire subgroup acts as One unique being also. These “Individuals” are a diffraction of the original Individual (the initial system) just like the infinite shades of color which a prism can diffract from seemingly unified white light.
Even in the most extreme case, a society of Individualists, it too is actually a collective, for every soul believes the same principles. Moreover, a society of all collectivists would be a collective, but because the entire group acts the same, the group itself would simply be an individual. Hence Individualism and collectivism are inseparable. When one defines the boundary of a group (a collective) into a single unit one immediately makes it an individual. Every collective (group of like individuals) is therefore an “individual” and every individual is a collective of like sub units (individuals). Individualism and Collectivism are merely categorical titles used when discussing different levels of magnitude of the recursion of any system, the micro system or the macro system, the general or the specific.
For example, Imagine an aviary. The Aviary (one unit, thus an individual) when viewed as collective of groups (the types of birds), each group of birds is described as an individual mirroring the individual qualities of those birds making up that particular group. Viewed at this level there is specific detail but multiplicity, for example: the details of eagles, owls, and penguins. However, when the Aviary is viewed as a single individual, the focus is on a Macro level of recursion which has much less detail of any specific individuals (sub groups) but describes the general detail of all group types Unified, such as; they all have beaks, wings, feathers, eggs and so on. Simplified, when viewing the Specific one will have multiplicity, and when viewing the General one will have Unity.
Another example is the human body itself, it is one individual composed of groups of collectives, the collectives being the blood cells, bone cells, muscle cells, etc. As such, Individualism and collectivism are the same recursive classification system simply observed from different levels of magnitude; the general or the specific. Every individual is made up of collectives, and every collective is made up of individuals.
I must add that in my opinion the most pure society would be a society of individualists, but no doubt it too would degrade, eventually precipitating out deviated subgroups of varying size and power skewing the system to one collective or another which would then eventually become the new Individual Archetype; which itself would then degrade, and perpetually continue the cycle of archetypes ad infinitum… however, change is stability.
Now know that any of these groups or individuals must be labeled when categorizing them into their respective places within a system, simply as a natural mechanism of the human attempt to understand things. However, for every label that one makes, one distinguishes the group/individual from others and thus separates it away from the true Unity of the ultimate system, the Universe itself. These separated and labeled groups or individuals may hold favor with you to varying degrees, some repulsing and some attracting you. Take care therefore to not thereby rally yourself against some group of your brothers and sisters and become quick to Hate, for this is a definite tactic of darkness, used against you since antiquity.
I too am guilty of this, for I have rallied myself against the group that I have labeled “The Wicked”, which is just as ambiguous as the Empire’s use of the word “Terrorist”. However my aforementioned label transcends more mundane labels, as it is simply composed of any group or individual who practices schism against Man. For I am sure the true definition of their word “terrorist” is: any person who propagates Love, Light(wisdom/intellect), Harmony, Unity and Freedom. As such the ultimate opposites are revealed; light and darkness, unity and division, involution and evolution, they are higher opposites because they are more clearly defined, as opposed to the ambiguous “left” and “right”. And they are the cause of each other, for to know light one must know darkness also, else; it is indistinguishable from anything else in the Archetypical Unified Universe.
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