One of the chief factors responsible for psychological mass-mindedness is scientific rationalism, which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignity. As a social unit he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics.”
-Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self
Statistics have an interesting way of undermining the individual's uniqueness. When the mean becomes the standard which we are categorized and judged by, all of our sharp edges become rounded off, we are not seen or understood by our exceptions to the rules, but only by our agreements to them. Large parts of who and what we are become invisible to the masses, and the institutions governing and selling to them. The mean, which doesn’t represent a concrete reality, but a mathematical abstraction, manifests itself into our world through policy, education, and media manufactured to rear and amuse the populace.
The moral responsibility of the individual is then inevitably replaced by the policy of the State (raison d'etat). Instead of moral and mental differentiation of the individual, you have public welfare and the raising of the living standard. The goal and meaning of the individual life (which is the only real life) no longer lie in individual development but in the policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from outside and consists in the execution of an abstract idea which ultimately tends to attract all life to itself. The individual is increasingly deprived of the moral decision as to how he should live his own life, and instead is ruled, fed, clothed and educated as a social unit, accommodated in the appropriate housing unit, and amused in accordance with the standards that give pleasure and satisfaction to the masses.”
-Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self
The larger our societies become, the more susceptible we are to becoming a mere “social unit.” Our individual existence, uniqueness, skills, and struggles become dwarfed by the averaged desires and needs of the masses. Our music, entertainment, towns, cities, and jobs, become tailored to satisfy the abstract statistically averaged man. This creates a deep and wide groove that we inevitably roll into like marbles collecting and organizing ourselves as one homogeneous whole, spinning down the same path at the same speed to a shared end.
Is there a way to be an autonomous, whole, integrated, and conscious being while existing as one drop in a pool of thousands, millions, or billions? With the love affair our modern times has with statistics, can policy and structures in these giant systems protect the individuality of the person over the averaged betterment of the masses? What is the ideal size of a group where the individual is able to hold his dignity, uniqueness, and influence without being consumed by the group mind?
I’m going to be developing these ideas, and exploring some conceptual models for society that are decentralized and micro in scale. If you find this type of thing interesting, please follow me as I continue to dive into this material and, hopefully, breathe some fresh ideas into a stale and redundant debate that seems to cycle ever more loudly around the conservative/liberal and libertarian/socialist poles.
