"Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds." You could use that quote on the back cover of Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World. Everyone does not succeed -- because the individual never finds out what he can do on his own. That avenue is cut off. He only knows what he can achieve in combination with others. He only knows what he can understand when he borrows from others. He may never glimpse what he truly wants to do in life.
This is a tragic situation, but the tragedy is concealed, because the memory of shifting from individual independence to group dependence is gone. There is no such memory. A child is brought up without independence. Therefore, how can he recall losing it?
He only knows the group and the team and the participation and the praise. He only knows the organizing of his life within a synthetically produced context.
He is taught that this is good and necessary.
So, one day, when a bolt comes out of the blue and he recognizes he is himself, what will he use to grasp that revelation and build on it?
Yes, there are productive groups and teams, and one is always working with others, to some degree. But the core and the starting point is one's self. That is where the insight and the magic begin. That is where the great decisions and commitments are made. That is where the world is born, every day.
I see no end of writing about this magic, because civilization has been turned upside down by treacherous people who have been fabricating a counter-tradition that will sink the ship.
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