A friend of mine posted a comment on my last post that I
thought was important enough to deserve its own post in response. Here is his
comment:
“We are the termites of the mammal
world. We are soft, pathetic and expendable as individuals but a raging flood
of power and change when we work together. And we are too many not to work
together. Many, if not most things, are incapable of existing within a single
mind. They exist between us.
What is government but an expression on the hive mind? A agreed compendium of behavior and rule so that we operate as a beast infinitely greater than ourselves. When 'they' are evil, or wasteful or authoritarian I believe the wrong pronoun is being used. We have met the enemy and he is us.”
What is government but an expression on the hive mind? A agreed compendium of behavior and rule so that we operate as a beast infinitely greater than ourselves. When 'they' are evil, or wasteful or authoritarian I believe the wrong pronoun is being used. We have met the enemy and he is us.”
So first let me say,
you are my favorite misandrist. I’d like to take and address some of your
points here.
“We are soft, pathetic and
expendable as individuals but a raging flood of power and change when we work
together.”
I take issue with this, it is true that when we work
together there is little we can’t do, however even as individuals we often
achieve wonderful and great things. I am reminded of a story about an Indian
man who single handed cut a pass through a mountain in order to allow people
in his village to get to the hospital on the other side. Even as individuals we
do wonderful and awesome things, and without the individual there is no “raging
flood of power.” We are an evolutionary masterpiece, you and I represent a long
line of organisms that “made the cut” and somewhere in the millions of years of
our evolutionary journey we developed not only self awareness, but the ability
to overcome our instincts. So yes, we are soft and squishy, and fragile, but
that is not all we are as individuals, we are also hardy, adaptable, and
tenacious. Together there is almost nothing we can’t do, as individuals that is
just as true.
“What is government but an
expression on the hive mind? A agreed compendium of behavior and rule so that
we operate as a beast infinitely greater than ourselves.”
“And we are too many not to work
together.”
Government is an expression of will; it is the fictional
construct that is used by some to exert control over others. It is not an
expression of the human consensus, not even within its own borders. Government
is not even an “agreed compendium of behavior and rule” as neither you nor I,
nor your neighbor, have consented to be governed. You and I are not signers of
the constitution; we have not signed a contract with any person to allow them
to control aspects of our lives. Instead we accept the fiction of government
because people with snazzy uniforms and bigger guns say we must. I will not
deny that the organization of the state has provided some good things throughout
history, it has made social advancements possible on both a grander and faster
scale than they would have been previously. This is historically done grudgingly and often
with violent protest from the government officials, look at any civil rights
movement and the government always takes the side of the oppressor.
Socially we do live by an agreed set of rules and behaviors;
however much like god government is not needed for this purpose. We all agree
that theft is wrong; I do not want to steal from you, and I assume I have
nothing you want to steal; this isn’t because the law says we shouldn’t but
because we recognize it as a negative thing. The law doesn’t stop thieves,
murderers, or rapists, the inability of this body to stop bad people from doing
bad things, in fact it seems to enable some really bad people to do really bad
things, supports the idea that government has become… unnecessary.
“And we are too many not to work
together.”
Absolutely, we are too many not to work together. With that
in mind, why are we tolerating agencies which serve to stop us from working
together? If there is nothing we can’t do together, why shouldn’t we throw off the
things that stop us from all working together? Things like I.P. and licensure.
Humans are social animals, we like working together. Yet we have let people
transform that drive from working together, to working for. Let’s work together
and change things, let’s do something positive.
“When 'they' are evil, or wasteful
or authoritarian I believe the wrong pronoun is being used. We have met the
enemy and he is us.”
I think that this says more about you, than it does “us.” We
are not the enemy, we are the solution, at least we could be the solution.
Humanity is a powerhouse, and we tend towards good. Don’t lose hope in the
species because of a recent trend, the historical trend has been towards
freedom, towards “good”, the trend historically is towards anarchism.
Again I must reiterate I have NO qualifications and you
should probably ignore me.
But I’d rather you didn’t…
Hi Josh!
ReplyDeleteI believe your defense of the individual is based on a misunderstanding of scale. It's not your fault - you, like all the others of your species have tiny little brains with a few measly sensors attached.
Let me disaffect you of your (common) misconception. When was the last time you met someone who made their own house, clothes, food? Even the simplest inputs to sustain our being requires the efforts of tens if not hundreds of our fellow travelers. I will never meet the woman who sewed the shirt I'm wearing or the man who picked the beans my coffee was brewed from. Have individuals done noteworthy actions? Not really - not where it counts - not in the face of history.
We live an odd existence where the separations of our animal conscience allows us to imagine that we are making decisions apart from the other. We truly believe that our lives have choice and variation. For every one oligarch whose billion dollars allows for a private island and a helicopter there are uncountable masses living identical lives strewn across the planet. The details may vary slightly but the net differential pales in the face of the commonality.
I would go so far as to say that the species we call Homo Sapiens is less important than the sponge-like mass that we form when seen from a respectable difference. All, and I mean all of our achievements are the result of many hands.
Now I ask the question: What master does the American Cult of Individuality serve? Who benefits when the masses are separated? Why would the group keep the individuals from better cooperation?
"What master does the American Cult of Individuality serve?"
ReplyDeleteCurrently it feeds our consumer culture.
"Who benefits when the masses are separated?"
The oligarchical powers that be.
"Why would the group keep the individuals from better cooperation?"
You seem to be conflating "government" with "the grou[" by which i think you mean species. the government wants to divide because as a unit we are strong, the capitalists want to divide us for the same reason. Just because i see the value of the individual within the group does not mean I am a pure individualist. I am more of a Warrenesque Mutualist.