The conflict of individuality has been alive for as long as we humans have been here, may be it was less when there were only two but with the increase in humans, the growth of time, we have definitely experienced it more and more. We have gazed at wars and wondered whether they were warranted and pages of history will reveal that most of the human conflict could have been averted with the shaking of hands. We have witnessed many times such an act bring wars and conflict to an end and wondered why it had to be performed many rivers of blood later. In truth, even the ones that have claimed to have our interests at heart have put theirs first, those that stood to lead us into the next age of growth have put their ambition before ours, in fact they have presented their ambition as the only ambition worth pursuing. Some of us have desired to stand on the side and sort the truth out, but the movement into the next better future went so fast that to stand on the side was to oppose this quick progress.
We have emphasised our greatness and our ambition ahead of that of the individual. Our society places loyalty and commitment far above the individual. There is a certain tension that develops when we align ourselves with certain other individuals, when we seek to form teams and groups. Many times we are expected to place the goals and dreams of the group far above our own; we are expected to take on a new heart and to trade our own in return. This process of heart replacement is a very complicated one. The demands that are placed upon the individual with no regard to the individual will eventually cast the individual back to their self cantered ways. How were we expected to be a group of individuals with no individual identity, some sort of heart beat that only we can posses and relate to?
This lie has consumed many great societies and not the societies only, but the individuals that also once comprised those very societies. Any union between humans should firstly seek to uphold the individual and then that of union, our individuality can never be denied even when we take on the greatest of human unions. When we urge people to get lost in this oneness that we strive so hard to create, we proclaim unto that oneness a quick death. There is simply no us without the I. The commitment by all to uphold the interests of the other above those of the group will not only serve to reduce on the human selfishness but will eventually release many to uphold the dreams of the group or union. It is a continual search for the hearts of men, for what makes them all come to life.
The individual has got to be spoken to from the heart, all the other attempts to make sense will eventually fail because sense can be disproved but a conviction will always scream. The husband that seeks to identify the desires of his wife far above those of the marriage has already taken care of the marriage unless of course his wife was never in the marriage in the first place. We go on telling ourselves the lie that all we need is union and yet in reality what we need is a clear understanding of the hearts of men and an open invitation of all to find a place for their hearts in the cause that we all seek to be a part of. All that seek to walk together have to firstly agree and agreeing is a process of revealing the hearts of those involved.
But we are strange beings; we would rather be lied to. We search for the truth in every lie and when we find the truth we seek for the lie in it. So we shall go on trying to beat all in line, trying so hard to ignore that our greatest task is not to foster unity but to understand the individual and seek to help the individual become the best they can be. The listening heart will always be the most inviting one.
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