Vol. 56, No. 6 — June 1975 —
The Importance of
the Individual
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The liberty of the individual to
control his own conduct is the precious possession he enjoys
in a democracy. It is to be interfered with only when necessary
to protect the liberties and rights of other individuals or
to safeguard society.
Individuals seek to find meaning and a sense of responsibility
in their existence, but they are likely to feel, even in a
democratic society, that they are losing their identity in
an age of mass communications, mass production, mass culture
and mass everything.
Canada, like many other countries, has entered a period
in which the majority of its citizens have come to entertain
new expectations about the things they should have a chance
to do and the place they should rightfully occupy in planning
their society.
We are moving into a new kind of world in which, as Edith
Hamilton wrote in The Greek Way to Western Civilization
(Mentor 1948): "It is not men's greed, nor their ambition,
nor yet their machines; it is not even the removal of their
ancient landmarks, that is filling our present world with
turmoil and dissension, but our new vision of the individual's
claim against the majority's claim."
Not so many centuries ago - and in totalitarian societies
of the present century - an individual had no rights at all
if a common purpose or a political objective conflicted.
Then a new idea arrived: that every human being had rights.
Since then, every generation has tried in its own way to make
the inner world of the individual fit into the ever-changing
frame of the outer world, but it is difficult. As Sam Levenson
said in his book In One Era and Out the Other (Simon
& Schuster of Canada, Ltd., Markham, Ont., 1974): "I spent
so many years of my life learning how to make ends meet. Now
that I have the means, they have moved the ends farther apart."
Persons are unique
Back of every deed and behind every great movement there
is an individual, a person existing, as the dictionary puts
it, "as a separate indivisible entity." He is unique, a never-repeated
phenomenon, acting and feeling in a way peculiar to himself.
He is a person who has resolved: I will walk on my own feet;
I will work with my own hands; I will speak with my own mind.
Practical individuality is attained when we have the widest
possible latitude of personal choice and action consistent
with the claims of living in society with others. H. G. Wells,
novelist, social prophet and humanizer of knowledge, said
this clearly: "We are not ourselves only; we are also part
of human experience and thought."
Though he lives in a world of three and three quarter billion
other persons, the individual wishes to learn his distinctive
place in his environment, to study, to reason, and to decide
for himself where he stands on all subjects affecting his
life and actions.
Canada offers a wide view
Canada, celebrating this year her 108th anniversary as a
confederated nation, offers every citizen the opportunity
to take a wide view of the possibilities she offers for everyone
to be his best self.
A nation is not a statistical aggregate of persons, but
a union of them sufficient for the purposes of life.
Individual living and living in society are not incompatible,
but they require flexibility in adjustment. Our civilization
is based on the idea of the person in society. That
is opposed to either complete individualism or collectivism.
Long ago, in what people sometimes think of as a golden
age, there may have been a period when men and women were
completely independent, responsible to no one but themselves.
However, the self-sufficing person, not relying on others
for aid or support, convinced that what he believes and does
concerns no one else, is a concept without validity in modern
civilization.
The 20th century individual has at times to submerge his
personal wishes, to co-operate with others for common ends
and to contribute his service and his special qualities to
society. Darwin noted that success in the game of life, and
therefore survival, is "often most promoted by mutual assistance."
We are not only individuals but social animals in the sense
that we could not exist at all without being in this relationship
to one another. A society, said Arnold J. Toynbee, is a product
of the relations between individuals.
By living in society we lose some of our independence, but
there is a difference between voluntary conformity in behaviour
and forced conformity in thought. When we contribute our ideas
of our own accord toward solution of community problems, we
tie our minds to those of others in bonds of respect and trust.
A person may retain his identity as an individual while
being a citizen of the world. There are many occasions for
the individual to say: "I am important because I am part of
my family, church, university, association and nation."
The "I" that an individual is today is the product of all
that has gone on between him and other human beings all his
life. He is responsible for heeding the laws that apply to
the whole of which he is part. He cannot, as might be said
today, enjoy all the fringe benefits without joining the union.
When an individual seeks to do his share in society, he
finds himself in the midst of organizations of massive size
and complexity. We live in a world of government and business
that seems to be wholly committed to bigness and consolidation.
No person, from workman to president of a firm, is a person
working alone. He is part of an organization, contributing
his part, taking or giving instructions, working with others.
Society and the person
The priority of the individual is unchallenged in a truly
democratic society. The conviction behind the ideals of democracy
is that the value of all human arrangements must be measured
by what they do to enhance the life of the individual.
However, the population of Canada is about twenty-three
million, and twenty-three million individualists can create
a lot of chaos. It is, then, necessary to give some guidance
to individuals so that the urge of their individuality meshes
with the constructive ambitions of the nation.
What we need in a democratic country are individuals who
live responsibly with their fellows while following standards
they have set for themselves.
Every person has unique powers that must not be melted down
in the collectivist pot of a managed society. If organized
as a single unit directed by a general staff at Ottawa or
as a complex of units with supervisors in the provincial capitals,
Canadians would develop a herd complex. The monolithic state
might not be a genial shelter except for the weak and the
incompetent.
Despite differences of opinion on many things, there are
items in our culture upon which all members of our society
agree. These form the culture pattern within which individuals
may develop. They are the roof under which every person may
pursue his purpose in peace and in safety and in harmony.
It is futile to call upon governments to make people happy.
All that the State can do is provide the conditions in which
individuals can set about making themselves happy. The individual
needs stable government to provide the economic and legal
framework within which he can create and achieve and make
his maximum contribution to society. On the other hand, the
government needs the initiative, skills and intelligent support
of the individual if it is to meet the rising expectations
of the people it serves.
Qualities of individuality
Even though we live under the most ideal conditions of democratic
individuality we should not expect everyone else to feel toward
us the tender love and profound respect which we feel toward
ourselves.
One's ego is the part of his psychic apparatus that experiences
and reacts to the outside world and thus mediates between
primitive drives and the demands of the social environment.
Those people are unfortunate who develop the habit of valuing
everything only in reference to their personal interest.
Nothing is so dull as to be encased in self. A person who
lives only for himself runs the risk of being bored to death
with the repetition of his own views and interests. The person
who can move his thoughts and hopes to something transcending
self can expand his horizon so as to find new interests.
Sigmund Freud, known as the inventor of psycho-analysis,
held the opinion that a child brings into the world an unorganized
chaotic mentality called the id, the sole aim of which
is the gratification of all needs, the alleviation of hunger,
self-preservation, and love, the preservation of the species.
As the child grows older the part of the id which comes
in contact with the environment through the senses learns
to know the inexorable reality of the outer world and becomes
modified into what Freud calls the ego.
This contact of the inner person with the outer world is
essential to efficient living.
There is no harm in thinking of yourself as the centre of
the universe so long as you remember that there are as many
other centres as there are men, women, children and other
thinking creatures, and that all are entitled to make the
best they can of their lives.
This is very far from the egocentricism of the rooster in
Edmond Rostand's play. He believed that the sun could not
rise without his crowing. Anyone is likely to slip into this
mood on occasion. Xerxes, king of Persia, was very successful
when it came to accomplishing things, but he was an egotist.
Upon receiving a report from his advisers he is reported to
have said: "There is somewhat of wisdom, but not much, in
thy suggestions: had there been more, the notions would first
have occurred to me."
We must make room for the minds and ideas of other persons.
A country that seeks, as Canada does, to be a place whose
people have not only space in which to live but space for
their minds to expand, needs citizens who can bear working
alongside other people who do or say unusual things.
He is a generous and intelligent individual who gives people
scope to express themselves in word and action. He is an excellent
person who asks other people when discussing a project: "How
does it look from where you stand?", thus recognizing their
individuality and displaying his broadminded belief that there
is a good deal to be said on both sides of most questions.
Without pollen from other minds, no person can have a crop
of vigorous seedlings in his own.
There are people who brush aside a wise saying of a person
merely because he is not of their political or religious persuasion.
The individual seeking to be great will like 'what is excellent,
no matter whose it is. He will examine the theories of others,
discuss them, lay them alongside his own ideas, decide upon
one that is practical and desirable, and carry it into execution
with prudence and energy.
Who am I?
One of the saddest symptoms associated with the feeling
of lack of individuality is the sensation of loss of identity.
An impressionable person may suffer distress because he has
no clear conception of what he is, why he is here, where he
is going, and what, if anything, he can do about it.
The individual needs the courage and backbone to be what
he is. The maxim on a temple wall at Delphi: Know Thyself,
is as applicable today as on the day the Greeks inscribed
it there.
A person should know his ability, what he is best fitted
for, his limitations, and his aspirations. This enables him
to appraise his own worth honestly. There is nothing more
effective in helping a person through life and in protecting
him from disastrous actions than a knowledge of his characteristic
strengths and weaknesses.
The effective individual chooses his goals, plans his future
and maintains the unity and coherence of his life. Nearly
everyone has a desire for distinction of one sort or another.
He is inclined to hope, and then to believe, that nature has
given him something peculiar to himself. He wants to stand
out from the crowd as a person.
Some go to great lengths to assert their identity in the
face of great difficulty. James Smithson was the illegitimate
son of parents who were of royal blood. Spurned by society,
he wrote: "My name shall live in the memory of men when the
titles of the Northumberlands and the Percys are extinct and
forgotten." He bequeathed a half million dollars to the United
States for the establishment of an institution for the world-wide
collection and diffusion of knowledge. His trust has been
faithfully executed over the years by the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington.
No person is exclusively this or that: the person in business
has something of the poet in him or he is not enjoying life,
while the poet has some business sense in him or he would
not make a living. Dante's individual desires were frustrated:
disappointed in love, he went into politics, fell into disfavour,
and was exiled. Yet in losing his birthright in his native
city Dante won the citizenship of the world, for in exile
he found his life-work in creating the epic poem Divine
Comedy.
Environment undoubtedly plays the main part in determining
whether the capabilities of a man or a woman are allowed to
develop, but the environment alone will never create such
capabilities. The incentive and the drive arise and develop
within the individual, and he needs above all a sense of direction.
A determined attitude is necessary if he is to overcome
difficulties and keep injurious thoughts under control. A
hint was given to those who seek wholesome individuality by
an emperor-philosopher: "Begin the morning by saying 'I shall
meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful,
envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason
of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have
seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful and of the
bad that it is ugly...I cannot be injured by any of them for
no one can fix on me what is ugly.'"
It is not enough to be against something. There is not much
reward in being an individual unless one's individuality is
directed toward a constructive purpose. Many persons are always
on the go, but do not know where they are going. Some have
the misguided idea that it is expressing individuality to
drive the wrong way on a one-way street.
Dependence and freedom
As population increases and the pace of life quickens everyone
becomes more dependent upon more people in increasingly intricate
ways. This causes disturbing thoughts to arise of personal
inadequacy. As Professor Archie J. Bahm, of the University
of New Mexico, wrote in an essay in Journal of Thought:
"When an individual is interdependent with so many multitudes
of others in megalopolitan and global living, the amount which
others depend on him seems minuscule [very small] compared
with the amount of his dependence upon so many of them."
The reaction "There's nothing I can do that will matter"
is something for every individual to avoid. Being independent
does not mean being indifferent or neutral on matters of private
or public interest. Every movement that has become great,
and every advance made in civilization, started with an individual
and was carried to completion by innumerable individuals expressing
their individuality in co-operative action.
Neutrality, meaning neither one thing nor the other, is
not always a virtue. When one abstains from something when
one should be actively interested, neutrality is unfair to
both the neutral person and society. There is a time to stand
up, to take sides, to be heard, to exert influence, to do
something.
The individual has urges that press him to fight against
oblivion. He wishes to be favourably known during his lifetime
and to be remembered with pleasure. To accomplish this he
seeks opportunities to display his abilities, but he must
be willing to endure some inconvenience in the process.
Every individual, no matter what his status, is a chip on
a historical wave, but some individuals, at some critical
moment, play a decisive role in redirecting the wave.
Individual happiness
Individual happiness includes the satisfaction which can
come only through the full development and utilization of
one's faculties. An individual is constantly expanding and
refining his ideas, learning to cope with the natural and
extraordinary experiences of his life.
Individuality presupposes maturity. It shows itself in responsibility
and independence, a giving rather than a receiving attitude,
co-operativeness, gentleness and goodwill, flexibility and
adaptability. It includes reaching a balance between the claims
of the individual and those of his society, and the process
of maturation from the idealism of adolescence to the responsibilities
of adult citizenship.
Maturity implies an ability to walk alone, with enough self-confidence
to run risks if they seem, after careful thought, to be worth
running. The individual who is living fully has found his
way from his mother's shielding arms and is making his way
among people. He has entered consciously into the human enterprise.
How far he succeeds in living happily and fruitfully will
depend upon how successfully he uses his mind. It is his imagination
of what might be that gives him the incentive to progress.
Do not envy the poet because so many delightful things happened
to him, but try to emulate his power of imagination which
was capable of turning fairly common experiences into something
beautiful. Don Quixote is the symbol of imagination contrasted
with reality: he represents the eternal warfare between drabness
and excellence. But his experience teaches us that imagination
must function within the scope of data and common sense.
Being individual means being different from the people who
stand around waiting to see what will happen to them next.
The individual knows that he himself can make things happen.
The notion that no effective change for the better can be
brought about in one's life or in society until millions of
people have decided upon it by a national referendum is a
rationalization dear to the lazy-minded. The first step toward
one's idea of utopia is an individual act, like that of the
person who first rubbed two sticks together and made a fire.
Individual initiative is based upon the feeling of something
that needs to be done, and it expresses itself through experiment
and effective action.
The proficient individual has dignity that grows out of
self-respect. He is modest in his assertion of his own opinion
and agreeable in his respect for that of others. He makes
a conscious effort to improve his human relations. In a time
when we have an abundance of technical efficiency in our lives
and man is giving place to management we are in danger of
losing the human contacts with people that make life interesting
and rewarding.
An individual cannot become a cultivated person by being
nice only to important people: that is, to those from whom
he expects something or other. No matter how talented he may
be, no matter how "independent" he may be, he cannot accomplish
greatly without the aid of his fellow men. He must consider
the rights, opinions, and reactions of people around him.
He may be a great deal cleverer than they are, but he does
not tell them so.
An individual's philosophy
One thing needed in this age is to rediscover and reassert
our sense of values.
A philosophy for living does not grow out of analysing words
minutely but of putting ideas together in the pursuit of wisdom.
A living philosophy will include a maturing mind, a ripening
character, a higher integration of all one's powers in a social
personality, a larger capacity for intellectual interests
and emotional enjoyments and a continual setting of new goals.
To be an excellent individual is to do what may be disagreeable
if one ought to do it and the will not to do what is agreeable
if one ought not to do it.
There are undoubtedly ups and downs to this matter of being
an individual. Being individual means finding within yourself
centres of strength which will enable you to stand despite
the confusion and bewilderment around you; to play all the
parts that are assigned to you at various times, and to grace
all of them.
What is greatness in an individual? Renaissance Man was
great. In his vocation he was uncompromisingly professional.
He believed that people possess intrinsic ethical and intellectual
worth. He awakened the interest of his countrymen in mankind's
past achievements, encouraged education, and fostered culture.
He taught that love of the things of the intellect and the
imagination are worthy for their own sake. He sought to reconcile
pagan ideas with the golden rule, and ancient ways with developing
progress. He urged every one who shared his interests not
only to rediscover old and forgotten causes of enjoyment but
to seek fresh sources.
People today are crying out to be given identity and to
be lifted individually from the great faceless mass. It is
the individual that matters, not to himself alone but to the
nation.
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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