While I'm at it...thoughts on individualism.

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Defaulter
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Comment discuss and divulge, I see little in the way of decent/or profound conversation here.

Today I find that society as a whole is all too willing to focus more the individual than the greater good. Let's break it down, the individuality in today's culture preaches about the potential of one individual life, yours, not what you are, but what you can be. on face value this seems nice doesn't it? I can be whoever I want to be, without the constraints of regime and persecution.

However, throughout history the following has been proven, the individual is of absolutely no consequence to the whole, the whole being the continuity and progression of the race, not of the individual.

What we have now is not; and has never been, brought about by the actions of one individual, yes Leonardo was a great man, as was Einstein and Heisenberg. But could anything that they went on to create be achieved without the toil and sacrifice of countless generations before them?

So what happened? when did society decide that enough was enough, we had enough, we didn't need any more progression, we didn't need revelation, ingenuity, or advancement, that we had reached the pinnacle state of our being?

I'll tell you when, throughout history from 2000-BC to today, once a society reaches a state of being, a state of empowerment which it feels is unprecedented and unparalleled in it's perfection, we regress, we rest on our laurels as it were, The social element we had strived so hard to forge is broken by the lack of need for such, the economic need we strive so hard to create is broken by the lack of interest from what is by this point a disinterested and content people. The government's of the past were felled by nothing more then a lack of interest in the socio-economic environment that we had created.

And the emergence of individualist views on a mainstream basis has itself come about many times as an effect of loss of faith in the socio-economics of it's time. the lack of a system to guide and protect our interests, resulting in the need for a more widespread view of self empowerment, and self protection. From which we get individualism, feminism, ageism and any other ism you care to mention, the blaming of the failing society's inability to cope with a declining system of faith.

In short, we begin by preaching the greater good, we draw lines on maps, and on moral compasses, we build fanaticism, devotion and faith in the system, that the system above all will prevail. We build economy around faith in the system, Without faith no one profits, but with faith some will be greater than others, faith built around a system and moral definition of righteousness. And when faith in the socio-economic system fails, the government it is built on will also fail, and society collapses, as it has done many times now.

Why did I write this, fuck it I'm drunk, I get a bit esoteric.

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Last edited by Defaulter on Tue Mar 25, 2014 2:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
ReubenMcHawk
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That was actually a good read, and I agree, people nowadays put their own desires over the greater good of everyone.

Also it was nice seeing this thread before it got shitposted to death.
Defaulter
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Glad to hear that I wasn't just drunkenly rambling :P edited in another paragraph near the end that ties things up nicely by the way, let's see if we can;t get a good discussion/debate going before the shitposting sets in :D
CommieBuffalo
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Yeah, nice read actually. I don't think this should be taken to the logical extreme and dedicate everything to the greater good(or rather the perverted mirror of that idea). That way you get shit like Nazi Germany or the USSR under Stalin's rule, and we all know how well all of that went.
Basically, people just need to be less dickish to each other and start seeing other people as actually that, people, other human beings with actual feelings and needs.

 

Vezok
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Dust in the wind much?

Actually, individualism is considerably lower*. Western civilization thrives on the rights and potential of the individual, so long as a governing force can incentive virtuous behavior among them. Seeing individualism in this light is very Paine-ish, where failures and extremes cannot be tolerated in any way at all, regardless of the need to learn from one's mistakes. I wouldn't be so terribly eager to bash western society, as right now it is at the highest point it's ever been (minorities are the least oppressed, that is). Individualism is how movements like the civil rights movement of the 1960's were born, as well as a variety of other social justice movements.
Besides, the internment of Japanese Americans was the treading on the rights of the individual for the "greater good."

Also, all of western history is a footnote to Plato. So, yes, we can attribute incredibly amounts solely to one man.

TL;DR, Individualism has brought incredibly progress in the west.
Vezok
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^because Nazi Germany.

Edit*
I am not responding to the post below this one. I just can't handle the stupid.
Last edited by Vezok on Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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