One of the chief hallmarks of a healthy society is the ingredient of collectivism. It is a sense of bonding, a feeling of oneness, a commitment to the common good and indeed is the flow that directs the onward march of human progress. It is necessary to be collectivist, but this should not crush the individualities – this premise lies at the core of the most appropriate (closest to truth) equation between micro-entity and the macro whole.
Strange is the relationship between the micro and the macro. Macro is made up of many micros. But macro can’t be called just a simple sum of all it’s parts. Macro is not merely the combined impact of all the micros. But often it is sometimes much more, or much less, or simply put something radically different from what it straightforwardly ought to be.
So is the case with the whole gamut of issues related to social good and individual choice, and perhaps it is even more complicated, as this deals with highly unpredictable and the most complicated entities encountered so far – the human beings.
Society is a collection of individuals or better put the sum aggregate of all people living together. It is a sort of collective agreement. It requires sacrifices to be made, it provides fruits for these sacrifices. This contract is a highly complicated one. While it is necessary that the individual take advantage of this collective canvas for his personal, social, cultural, psychological evolution ; it also important that this ‘collectivity’ does not make him a slave of a group or groups or groupism. There is a very delicate, and often seemingly ‘indistinct’ dividing line that links the parts to the whole and the parts to each other, and this divide and link of inter relationship, if is not clearly and purely defined, and understood, in society or in the minds of individuals, leads to various social and psychological problems.
Individuals need to gel, where they got to gel. And they need to be distinct, where ever the need be so. The ideas of individualism, collectivism, free choice and adherence to authority or some central tenet, is the most challenging of all the issues that impact mankind in his well being. It’s not that each one has to be at the cost of the other. Free will is the most precious possession of an individual. But this free will finds it’s fullest of force only when a man doesn’t exercise it merely superficially. There has to be a depth. And this depth can’t discount his filial and social responsibility.
It can be said that a person needs to be a part of the whole. This connotes indivisible collectivism. But at the same time, his individuality must be always retained. He must be socially integrated, yet individually distinct. This sounds more than a paradox, but ideally ought to be the case. If the flow of time and the world is like a mighty river, then it’s rich diversity should be expressed in myriads of ways. We have had many revolutions in the world, so many wars, so many diverse intellectual theories, all have impacted the world in more than several ways. The efforts to create a better world will never cease.
But certainly, we need more intellectuals, more and more learned people, more and more people who can think and reason by themselves, and their clout should be made to increase. The impact of evil and destruction is always more than that of goodness and construction. Thus we see Gandhi’s Satyagraha look puny before Hitler’s holocaust, in terms of magnamity and impact. Knowledge should never be lost. And it should be applied. Sense of discrimination should be used.
What is bad is bad at all costs. We have anti-Jewish pogrom of Hitler, Hindu-Muslim slaughter of the Indian subcontinent, apartheid in South Africa, anti-Dalit discrimination in India, and there is a long list. These are clear examples of mobocracy, where man is blinded by group (mass) beliefs. However things got to be seen in their totality. For Eg – No one can justify the mass murders of Muslims in Gujarat immediately after the Godhra incident, but the Hindu-Muslim relationship in India is a product of several other complicated factors, the natural docility of Hinduism and the simultaneous zeal of Islam, is a factor which can’t be discounted. If politicians in India make laws which encourage secularism among Muslims, and take them to education, enlightenment and upliftmment only that would be the right approach.
A mob is a misguided, disorderly, faceless and senseless group that is out to destroy anything and everything. While collectivism is for a mission, for progress, for development, for upliftment. Collectivism is ultimately liberating, it collects people for strength, for power, for magnitude of movement. The anti-corruption movement being led by the Gandhian social crusader is an apt example of collectivism. Collectivism is unification, mobocracy is division, it brings together people for communal riots, for terrorism, for the ultimate divide.
Only with a sense of discrimination, with knowledge, with uprightness can mobocracy be defeated and collectivism triumphed.
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