On the disadvantages of collective life

The mooncakes are too sweet, how about something refreshing?

Human beings, only as a "species", can show their strength over other animals, otherwise they will be instantly killed by their animal friends. The reason is very simple. For example, Robinson Crusoe on a desert island will definitely not be able to fight a black bear. A wolf child must recognize the wolf as its father. Only if the wolf follows the lead can there be any hope of survival.

It is human nature to stick together. Only by living among the crowd can an individual gain a sense of security, belonging, and meaning. (Note 1: Please pay special attention to the logically necessary but insufficient relationship between this sentence to avoid misunderstanding.) Whether it is a sense of security or a sense of belonging, it is a departure from loneliness. Earthlings are different from cats. Earthlings naturally avoid loneliness, although loneliness is the source of creativity. It seems logical to say that a moderate sense of restlessness and wandering is everyone's muse, but many people are busy running towards the collective. When my mind was busy, my eyes were blind, and I didn't notice the goddess above my head at all, and just fell into the warm arms of the collective.

As for the sense of meaning, it is divided into the sense of meaning as a member of a collective and the sense of meaning as an independent individual. The group cannot dissolve the latter, but the collective can. The collective is the sea. A single drop of water tastes salty (note 2: the brand of the collective cannot be irrigated or drunk), is small (note 3: evaporates quickly), and is like a screw, which is worthless without a huge machine. The ideal group is a forest. Each tree grows alone. It bears its seeds in spring and sheds its leaves in autumn. It has different shapes and values, and has its own rhythm of birth, old age, sickness and death.

Collective life does not mean group life. This is the most important premise of this article.

The so-called collective life means living with the collective as a unit, and living with the collective as a unit. In such a life, collective interests are absolutely greater than and superior to individual interests, and collective needs are absolutely greater than and prior to individual needs. Therefore, individuals must absolutely obey the collective. Any absolute is questionable and dangerous. Based on this premise, it can also be said that any life has its advantages and disadvantages. The argument of "double-edged sword" has always been an unbreakable truth. But as a relativist who (strives to) have an attitude, I just want to talk about the disadvantages of collective life. It's just talk, don't take it seriously.

Why follow the rules? In order to form order, this is necessary for the survival and development of any group. What is the purpose of the collective requirement to follow the rules? In order to form order, it is more uniform. What is uniformity? That is, no matter whether they are tall or short, beautiful or thin, they all look the same in the group, from appearance to heart. This is easy to understand. Only by eliminating individual differences can the greatness of the collective be highlighted. This is similar to how hundreds or thousands of ants that look exactly the same come together to create a shocking effect.

This scene comes from the TV series "The Spring Breeze Is Not as Good as You". The first compulsory course for a group of college freshmen is a year-long military training. The first lesson of the military training is for all girls to cut off their long hair and cut it into Class monitor Zhao Yingnan has short, ear-length hair. The hairstyles are all the same, and the tops, pants, shoes, hats, and socks are all unified, and the originally colorful individuals instantly become copies of ctrlC ctrlV.

What should you do if you want to look unique? Wearing eye-catching glasses, a necklace, bracelet or anklet? Sorry, these are prohibited. Although I was not forced to cut my hair when I was in school, I was criticized for wearing anklets. Later, the beautiful opal anklet was confiscated, forever. I have never seen it again. I missed my anklet, but I didn't dare ask for it back because I was the one who broke the rules and made the mistake. From then on, I never dared to wear jewelry when I went to school.

You see, you are forced to follow the rules at first, obeying on the outside but dissatisfied on the inside, but soon, the stubborn heart will compromise and agree with the external rules. There are two reasons for this change: first, it becomes a natural habit, and second, it is a psychological defense mechanism that everyone has - sweet lemon psychology, that is, people are naturally inclined to treat emotions and emotions that are difficult to accept and cannot get rid of. Rationalize behaviors and situations to achieve psychological balance.

Collective life changes "I? have to do sth." into "I must do sth.", which is nothing more than a subtle and silent thing. (Note 4: sth. = follow the rules)

At this time, uniformity has penetrated from the appearance and behavior to the heart.

I am reminded of the animated movie "The Great Protector". Because the peanut people in it cannot resist and get rid of the tyranny of the Great God of Ji'an, they can only agree with the rules he set: all peanut people must wear the same fake Eyes, fake mouth, no talking, no kissing, must eat water monkeys, must kill each other. They are a group with the same goal - burning lamp oil and the same code of conduct. However, this group is controlled by a careerist who tells them that all resisters are dangerous elements and will endanger collective interests. There are really two rebels in the movie, one is Yinpo and the other is Xiao Jiang. What is their ending? You guessed it, or go see the movie yourself.

Not everyone has the courage to break conventions. Therefore, long-term and uninterrupted collective life will not only destroy people's personality, but more importantly, it will dampen people's energy and courage.

In collective life, apart from sleeping and dreaming, eating, going to the toilet and even taking a shower are all collective activities. There is almost no personal space. Personal activities are regarded as wandering and wandering, and personal privacy does not exist at all. This kind of life will make people very uncomfortable at first, and they will want to escape. As time goes by, they can only change from accepting their fate to dependence. (Note 5: Please refer to the "sweet lemon psychology" mentioned in the previous section for the reason.) Because they are accustomed to eating, sleeping and working with others, and being subject to collective inspection at any time, every member of the group will regard "grouping" as a Adhere to the most basic standards of speech and behavior, don't say anything that doesn't fit in with the crowd, and don't do things that don't fit in with the crowd. After all, being in a group and being isolated means that a series of troubles will follow.

Being accustomed to being in a group will have two consequences. One is the fear of being alone and losing the ability to be alone. The other is following the same pace and losing the ability to think independently. If you lose the ability to be alone, you will be unable to recognize yourself clearly, and you will always seek a sense of existence from the outside, especially caring about other people's evaluation of yourself. If you lose the ability to think independently, you will be unable to distinguish right from wrong. Just like the Nazi party member Eichmann recalled the atrocities in World War II and described himself as just "a screw in a machine", responsible only for obedience and cooperation. As for what this huge machine is going to do, whether it is to save people or kill people, the screws I have neither the right nor the ability to intervene.

While Sartre said that "hell is other people", he also said that people are free. No matter what the situation, people have the right to choose. Even if they are facing a firing squad, they can choose to carry out the crime. Raise your head or lower your head. The same theory holds true for screws.

When there is a collective, there is a difference between "inside the body" and "outside the body"; when there is collective A, there is collective B, collective C, collective D... Since all collectives emphasize "collective interests", the collective Every member must regard collective interests as the highest interest and collective needs as the first need. Then it will inevitably become the norm to divide "us" and "the other party" and treat them differently.

Anthropologist Levi Strauss believed that human beings have a "dichotomous instinct". From this, it is not difficult to understand why children always like to distinguish between "good guys" and "bad guys." Self-interest is also a human instinct, so "our side" often represents light, greatness, and correctness, which is worthy of all colleagues' efforts, while "the other side" means darkness, shortness, and wrongness, and we must resolutely draw a clear line between them. This is of course a relatively extreme situation, but it is not uncommon. Just think about the numerous social movements in Chinese and foreign history. A more common situation is that we and the other party are not necessarily incompatible, but they must be clearly distinct and competing with each other. Just like the inter-class competition and inter-school competition in school, the competition between squads, platoons, companies, battalions... in the army are all for the sake of advancement. At this time, one or two clumsy mistakes in the other camp will cause you to Really sorry? Will the other party's wonderful performance arouse your sincere appreciation?

The ability to sympathize with feelings is easier for independent individuals than for those "collective screws".

In fact, the root cause of the disadvantages of collective life is that the collective is used to cover up the individual and the collective is used to replace the individual. Those individuals who are too lazy to think or dare not take the lead gradually acquiesce in this cover-up and substitution. , Slowly and slowly, they breathe the same fate as the collective, slowly and slowly, forgetting that without each of them, the collective is nothing.

In the movie "The Shawshank Redemption", Red said to Andy: "Prison is an interesting place. At first you hate it, then you adapt to it, and as time goes by, you start to be unable to live without it. "From adapting to being inseparable, this is called "institutionalization." Just like Old Rhett, after he was finally paroled, he was at a loss as to what to do and was surrounded by fear all day long. The "prison" in the movie is clearly a metaphor, and it is not impossible to replace it with "collective".

How to avoid "institutionalization"? Learn from Andy, played by Tim Robbins. Even if you don't have his abilities, you have to be like him and be ready to escape from prison.

Finally, thank you very much for reading to the end of this article.

If you think I am exaggerating and being alarmist, then there are probably two possibilities: one is that your collective life is not long or intermittent, and the other is that you have been institutionalized and ignorant.

In fact, there is a third possibility: you may have overlooked the theoretical premise of this article-collective life is not equal to group life.

If you still think I am talking nonsense after excluding the above three possibilities, then please believe that I am talking nonsense.