Synthesis wrote:Collective authority, commonly referred to as, "a group," is/has been the source of nearly all dis-content in society. The reason for this is fairly straight-forward. If you can agree that compassion is that quality that makes us truly human [in the best sense of the word], then this manifestation can only arise in the individual, and never in the group. The group is simply a mechanism to collect power to be used over individuals, and little else.
I find the above sort of views very lacking, shallow and narrow.
As usual the views are always confined to what has happened in the past and the present and it is assumed such thing will repeat into the future.
If we look into the evolution of groups throughout human history, there is a progressive trend which we should exploit and strive towards the ideal of a perfect collective group.
There are many pros and cons with the concept of groups/teams and the collective.
Since human history, humanity has evolved with smaller groups in terms of small tribes in jungles to the United Nations [UN] and the establishment of various international groups to exploit synergy.
Given the current situation and state of the average human's psychology, there are pros but the cons are also very distinct with the strong exploiting the weaker groups. This however should not stop us from abandoning the concept of groups, i.e. collective group of humanity because by reason, ultimately the pros of groups will outweigh its own cons and also the pros of individualism.
The problem with the poor performance of the collective group of humanity is due to the very contrasting deviation from the average of psychometric competences between individuals. If the average IQ of humanity is 100, we could have 20% with IQ of 60 and below.
Say, why our current group-collective is performing so poorly is represented by the following averages of all 7+ billion human beings;
- Average of all humans;
Intelligence Quotient [IQ] = 100
Emotional Intelligence [EQ] = 100
Spiritual intelligence [SQ] = 100
Wisdom Quotient [WQ] =100
Moral Quotient [MQ] =100
Team/group skills [TQ] =100
Other skills/quotient = 100
It is possible [we need to strive for it] to increase all the above average quotients of all humans gradually by 20%, [by 50 years] 50%, 100% [by 100 years] then 200% and > in the future. If we can achieve the above increase for all the quotients then we will have a very high performance humanity collective and the high Moral Quotient and Wisdom Quotient of the individual will ensure there is perpetual peace and continuous improvement.
Point is when every individual's quotient is increased, e.g. moral quotient, each individual will not feel the society's moral laws are imposed on them but rather it is they themselves and individuals [within a team] are the one that establish the laws for themselves.
Therefore we should strive for towards the ideal perfect collective group and not condemn the concept of groups [as in OP] and do nothing to improve the current situation for the future.
Not-a-theist. Religion is a critical necessity for humanity now, but not the FUTURE.