I agree this post is good for the thinking. Have you ever heard of Ayn Rand? she was founder of the philosophy termed, 'objectivism'. She addressed these thoughts in her work, "the fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" and also, "Anthem". Her school once included a psychotherapist named, Nathaniel Brandon. Brandon made the statement, "Individuation and separation mark the birth of the human being." He also went on to observe that a majority of people will live their entire life and never be born.
The observations of this generation you make, are also the observations of the wise throughout all history. People have always been 'sheeple' and every man telling them what their God says to do, will testify to this. The large part of the problem is that those who are so neurotic as to NEED to lead others have been the leaders. When we view the standards of judgement used to make decisions as to who will lead whom, it all becomes more clear. The President or other Politician is the best liar and most amoral. The Supervisor is the butt-lick for the owner, again often being amoral. Even the 'teacher' is the ultimate conformist, having accepted the rule that they will teach and learn only as told to.
from their earliest moments, people are told they, "Can't beat the system" to "go along and get along", or to not be a 'Smart alek' or 'embarass' US. Yet, these things serve a purpose of Governmental structures such as ours. Without going into it too deep here, the entire education system we have today was based upon a Prussian who found he could not raise an army for his war. By mandating education, he mandated indoctrination and made a servile people who would serve as he taught them. The same is true here in the U.S.A.
You cannot lead a people who think for themselves. If you ever saw the humorous movie by Monty Python, "the Search For The Holy Grail" you've seen the scene where the King goes up to a peasant working at finding roots to eat, and announces "I am your King". The man says he has nothing to do with a King if he isn't helping him eat ( the lines are funnier but I won't spoil it). Without having been taught to 'follow' the people will just get on fine by themsleves. This is exactly what the Kings and Politicians fear, a people who don't view their self-importance as anything but delusion and neurosis, treating them as the next 'averagejoe'. Hence the need for 'public education' and 'registering' with a Party, subscribing to a specific theology, making the collecting of green paper a 'goal' and standard by which we judge each other.
Most people, you know since you've been a leader, CHOOSE to be followers, and this is convenient to the neurotics who need to lead 'lesser' people to feel adequate in themselves. I spent not a few years refusing to lead, finding followers loathsome, and my path too rigidly mapped by such compromising of my life energy. Still, leadership can be a good thing, as in war where the 'command' is more important than life itself, and likely will save the follower by fact he follows the leader. A Ross Perot is the type of business leader who does so by example. He talked of having contract negotiations and after the offer is made to him in 3,000 pages of legalese, sat back and said, I trust you have to have made a good deal here because now I'm going to turn the table and you take my terms and I will take yours under this thickly worded contract. More than once the imposter left the table I assure you. But Ross was good on his word and never made a deal he wouldn't turn the table on and take himself.
Those who have 'Party' affiliation politically, have the rationalization for social injustice that unjust people need for peace of mind. Their Party never does wrong because they do it to either stop the other Party doing it to them, or because they are 'right' in their thinking. Yet ask a Republican why he would support setting up a'Democracy' in Iraq and not a 'Republic' and you'll get a blank stare. Ask a Democrat how they can oppose a majority vote for a Republican and you get the same. In truth, most people don't give a damn about social 'Justice', only social equality of opportunity. They don't care if you rip off a dollar from someone's Grandma in an Arkansas Savings& Loan scam, only that they should be able to do it in Denver also.
Sadly, the end of all this blather I've put forth is that I do not believe things are going to magically change any time soon. There will be leaders and followers forever, and the more crowded it gets, the less the individual will be able to escape the gig, unlike Thoreau, who went and bought some woods. If you have individuated and separated you are alive my friend, and we can't go back to the fold, for we've seen too much of the greener pastures of freedom of mind and life. We can pity those blinded by Party, Theology, and green paper, but we can't be part of them, and that is reward enough. To laugh at those who say 'You can't beat the system" and tell us to 'compromise' is our gift to those who we raise and who will someday look up to us and KNOW it can be done and they too can be a 'majority of one' as they walk through life, for we have shown the way. [the art of leading without leading] Carry On.
