Individual
and Society
Alexander Liss
Individual and Society are highly abstract
concepts; in the same time, their analysis is important for daily decisions.
Often, an Individual means a particular
person or a social group. A Society could mean a larger social group or even
humanity as a whole.
The most important observation is that
these two concepts even can't be defined separately. When we think about some
common structures, we use a term Society and when we think about unique
manifestations, we use a term Individual.
Such fluid use of terms,
boundaries between which are defined only in a context, and not defined as
universal boundaries, is rather a rule than exception. A universally
defined boundary between them is often a sign of psychological
trouble.
The example of such trouble one could see
in some emigrants.
It starts with a state of "hidden
dissident", which a person - future emigrant, enters in a society, where
the person resides originally. This state of rejection of own society is a
painful one, and usually it takes a very sick society to force a person into
such "internal emigration". In a sick society, a normal person has no
other choice, but such internal emigration.
The person creates a wall between oneself
and the society. This wall is reinforced with repeating memories of upset,
anger and fear and it acquires a life of its own, as something natural.
Eventually, this wall starts shaping all person's
perceptions.
An emigrant arrives in a new country and
discovers tremendous disconnect between own image of the world and new reality.
This perpetually reinforced and very upsetting fact causes
reinforcement of the existing wall between what one perceives as own
Individuality and a surrounding Society.
This wall causes inevitable perception of
loneliness and desire to create a bridge over it to other Individuals.
The cause of a problem is only this
artificial wall. The person should remove it - move from the state of being
emigrant to the state of being immigrant, feeling of being a part on new
society and enjoying it.
In this case, the existence of such wall is
obvious. However, such walls are present everywhere and they are a major
problem. They are a cause of loneliness, frustration, anxiety, depression,
passivity, and other ills, which one does not want to have.
The cure is amazingly simple - take down
this wall.