nivek
As Above So Below
Why are People So Divided and Hostile? – The Dangers of Racial, National, and Political Identities
View: https://youtu.be/xKBY5Xcc0zM
Transcript of the video here:
A healthy sense of self is built upon two primary components: the realization of our unique potential and the identification with a set of collective norms. If we tend too far in the direction of either one of these components our personality will develop in a distorted manner. An extreme individualism is anti-social and does not give proper weight to the wisdom of tradition, while an over-identification with the collective leads to pathological conformity and a lack of self-reliance. The ideal is to strike the golden mean between these two extremes, embracing both our individuality and our collective nature.“We fall captive to the herd animal if we cannot reach the individual divinity in ourselves.”
Carl Jung, ETH Lecture December 1939
In the modern day few walk this middle-path rather, morbid distortions of the self are the norm and the most common distortions stem from veering far too close to the personality extreme which Carl Jung called a “futile collectivism”. In this video we will explore the dangers of over-identifying with groups or collectives, and why this is leading to a divided, hostile, and easily controlled society.
Collectivism is a philosophical doctrine and central to it is the idea that groups, or collectives, are superordinate to the individuals who compose them. Typically collectivism is discussed with respect to political ideologies. Both fascism and communism are collectivist political ideologies which demand that individuals sacrifice their property, well-being, and sometimes even life for the so-called “greater good” of the nation-state. With respect to personality development, however, futile collectivism refers to the situation in which an individual derives his or her identity and self-worth primarily from membership in certain collectives or groups.“No wonder that nowadays there is a feeling of catastrophe in the air, as though an avalanche had broken loose which nothing can stop. The collective man threatens to stifle the individual man, on whose sense of responsibility everything valuable in mankind ultimately depends.”
Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition
This proclivity to identify with a collective is a key element of identity politics, which, in the words of Douglas Murray:
A futile collectivism can also be seen in the tendency of many people to form their identity around their religious or political affiliation, class, ethnicity, or nationality. And as John Goldhammer explains:“…atomizes society into different interest groups according to sex (or gender), race, sexual preference and more. It presumes that such characteristics are the main, or only, relevant attributes of their holders and that they bring with them some added bonus.”
Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds
Around two hundred years ago the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer made a poignant observation regarding why people base their identity on groups. In 19th century Germany, nationalism was on the rise and this led many people to forge their identity around the German nation-state. Schopenhauer observed that those who most fanatically identified themselves with their German nationality were typically powerless people in need of a collective identity to compensate for their lack of individual self-worth. Or as Schopenhauer wrote:“… individuals base their self-image on a collective or group ideal…[and] derive their self-worth and sense of identity from a group…They make the group ideology…the predominant object in their psyches.”
John Goldhammer, Under the Influence: The Destructive Effects of Group Dynamics
100 years later the philosopher Eric Hoffer echoed this sentiment:“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” (Schopenhauer)
Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms
A group or collective identity offers the powerless a variety of psychological benefits, such as the ability to dispense with one of life’s heaviest of burdens – self-responsibility. When one sees oneself as a mere particle in a much greater social whole, one no longer needs to think and make decisions for oneself. Rather, one merely needs to do and think what others do and think, and to blindly obey the collective authority figures.“The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.”
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
Or as Jung put it elsewhere:“Collective thinking and feeling and collective effort are far less of a strain than individual functioning and effort; hence there is always a great temptation to allow collective functioning to take the place of individual differentiation of the personality.”
Carl Jung, Two Essays in Analytical Psychology
Yet another psychological benefit a group identity offers is a collective purpose to compensate for feelings of meaninglessness and the inability to forge an individual purpose. Referring to the tens of millions of people in the 20th century who formed their identity around the political ideology of communism, one writer explained:“All collective identities, such as memberships in organizations, support of `isms,’ and so on…are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible.”
Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
These benefits, however, are outweighed by the costs. Perhaps the greatest of which is that people who form their sense of self through group identification run the risk of becoming possessed by what the psychiatrist Robert Lifton called “the assumption of omniscience.” Group-identified people do not entertain the possibility that their group ideology and worldview may be wrong, disingenuous, or destructive, for that would pose a fundamental threat to their identity. Rather, such people tend to dogmatically assume they are right and righteous, and that anyone with differing ideas or values is either ignorant, immoral, or evil. They see the world through the prism of an “us vs them” mentality, and this inevitably leads to a polarized society composed of divided and hostile groups, some of which are one social crisis away from scapegoating and committing atrocities against targeted members of out-groups.“From the outside, the communist may look like an ant in an anthill, but to himself he may seem to be a comrade helping to carry out a great design…For the first time they ‘belong to’ something, to a ’cause’…something at any rate which transcends their narrow personal interests and opens up a world in which each has his part to play and all can ‘pull together.’”
The Hungry Sheep, From the Times Literary Supplement. 1951
Or as John Goldhammer explains in more detail:“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”
Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
To make matters worse, in the modern day much of the division and hostility between groups is being artificially stoked through the strategy of divide and conquer. In many countries authoritarian governments are spreading propaganda which demonizes certain groups – labelling them as conspiracy theorists or inherently racist, misogynist, or extremist – and then proceeding to tell the rest of the populace that these groups are a threat to “democracy”, “progress”, “health” or “unity”. This form of social manipulation is further dividing racial, ethnic, political, national, and religious groups, ensuring they fight amongst each other and so ignore the real threat that hovers over us all – total state control.“Exclusiveness in any group alludes to a claim that the group has some unique purpose or knowledge and therefore membership in the group implies that the members are likewise special in some manner. Of course, along with this exclusiveness, outsiders must be classified as ignorant and inferior…The group possesses reality, hence those not in the group are in a state of unreality and nonexistence…group-identified persons develop a mob mentality, able to kill without feeling or conscience.”
John Goldhammer, Under the Influence: The Destructive Effects of Group Dynamics
Basing our identity primarily on groups or collectives is maladaptive and destructive. But we must not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, for we evolved as tribal beings and forming connections with others based on our commonalities can be an enriching part of life.“By submissively accepting a collective label, we turn ourselves into stereotypical clones, little more than puppets whose strings are controlled by the prevailing popular ideology.”
John Goldhammer, Under the Influence: The Destructive Effects of Group Dynamics
Yet forming in-groups only remains beneficial if we sufficiently differentiate ourselves from them, that is, and maintain our psychological and behavioural independence. This does not require we leave our tribal in-groups, but relate to them with a detached involvement, not allowing the group ideology to be the sole shaper of our reality or sense of self. Without this individualistic process of differentiation, we run the risk of succumbing to what Jung called “a melting away of the individual in the collective.” (Carl Jung, Two Essays in Analytical Psychology) In other words, we psychologically regress to the state of the herd animal.“…we don’t synchronize with all members of humanity equally; we preferentially harmonize with people who are close to us by birth, location, and shared culture, whether that culture is writ large (at the macro level of entire societies) or small (at the micro level of groups that help form our multilayered identities, for example ethnicity, political party, and even sport fandoms). These tribal tendencies toward forming ingroups can shape our most cherished traditions and moments…”
Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Hivemind
The zoologist Adolph Portmann noted that in the animal kingdom adaptive changes in behaviour can only be initiated by individual specimens who break with the species’ well-established patterns. In this respect the human species is no different. Social progress and prosperity depend on the existence of individuals who possess the courage to differentiate themselves from others, and who are capable of standing firm in their beliefs and values even amidst outbreaks of collective madness. So long as most people continue to base their identity on collectives and groups, society will continue to stagnate and be polarized, divided, and easily controlled; and people will continue to blindly grasp at collective solutions to problems that can only be solved by individuals.“While man still lives as a herd-animal he has no psyche of his own, nor does he need any.”
Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition
Or as Jung continues:“…the more the sum total of collective factors peculiar to every large community rests on…prejudices detrimental to individuality, the more will the individual be morally and spiritually crushed, and, as a result, the one source of moral and spiritual progress for society is choked up.”
Carl Jung, Two Essays in Analytical Psychology
“Ultimately everything depends on the quality of the individual, but our fatally short-sighted age thinks only in terms of large numbers and mass organizations.” (Jung)
Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self
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