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Introduction to The Individual

 

March 26, 2007 

The collective is a powerful entity that leads to the formation of the Individual. But that collective which allows the Individual to take shape wants him to follow its conditions in toto. Therefore,

  • The Individual is a product of the collective, who functions entirely under its control.
  • Still, as a Pioneer he leads the collective until all the members of the collective rise to his level.
  • Therefore, the role of the Individual who leads the collective while being under its total control is our present concern.
  • In other words, the Individual is one who is the Guru of the society exemplifying the principle of "Leading the leader".

The collective is an amorphous mass out of whose subconscious experience the formed Individual emerges as an example, forerunner or Pioneer of various dimensions. Out of the collective mass, the unit of the Individual is born as a micro formation.  His size, power, influence can range from the world to his personal circle like a family.

He who has the urge to conform cannot be an Individual as long as that urge survives.

  • One who sees a course of action to be rational and does not hesitate to launch on it because it does not conform to the social norms, has the seed of the Individual in him.
  • His tendency qualifies him to be an individual while his accomplishment ranges from no action to action in spheres of varying sizes.
  • Individuality is a faculty of Mind, whose nascent birth in Hamlet made him hesitate to kill Claudius.
  • Not that the vital and physical are entirely incapable of Individuality, but when it arises it is made possible by the mental element in the vital and the physical.
  • The Individual, being of a higher order, accomplishes at a higher level.
  • There is no individual in one who does not accomplish something new.
  • All Pioneers and Leaders are marked Individuals, though the Pioneer is far different from the leader and individuality is only one marked trait of them. In another essential sense, all the three have distinct personalities having one element in common.
  • There can be individuality even in conforming when one wants a concentration of that kind.
  • As there is a difference in personality from manners, behaviour, character, there is an essential difference from personality in the formation of individuality.

- Personality is the ability to transfer the essence of capacity of character to an utterly new situation, as the politician who assumes power for the first time.

- Individuality is the personality that refuses to conform to the collective.

  • In the formation of Individuality, man enters the zone of psychological growth that permits1) the emergence of perfect form, and 2) the formation of the unique type.
  • While character is rigid and fixed, personality and individuality carry the original freedom so that they are free to withdraw from that formation to attempt a new form.
  • The formed Individual is the acme of the accomplishment of the political structure called democracy. Law maturing into individual liberty is the process by an illiberal democracy growing into a liberal Democracy.
  • The greatest negative examples of perfected individuals are seen in the total loyalty of the serf in Europe, the dedicated chaste wife in India who dies the same moment the husband's life leaves the body. Mousquetan, the lackey of Porthos died when his will was read lying on his Master's clothes.



story | by Dr. Radut