Oh boy! I'm super excited about this perspective! Especially because I'm reading two books right now, well I finished one of them, but anyways both of them are reinforcing each other in this idea of the mass man!
Let me tell you what the books are, to start off:
1) The Undiscovered Self, by Carl Jung (are you surprised? ha ha) written in 1957. I bought this one at Borders books. It's only like 100 pages long so it's a quick read, but his language is a little bigger than most books I'm reading these days so something to be prepared for. Also, this book was written shortly after WWII and at the time of the Iron Curtain, so he talks a lot about "the State" referring to governments in general, but this needs to be taken in context of the govenrments in Europe at this time.
2) Sacred Contracts, by Caroline Myss, 2002.
In case you can't tell, I really liked writing book reports as a student ... especially comparative ones! Mwahahaha ... blogging is fun for me because it makes me feel like I'm back in school.
I know, I know: I digress.
Starting when I was about 15 I've had strong urgings in my heart to do certain things, to stop believing in certain things, and to be a certain type of person. It's taken the last 10 years for me to get to the point I'm at with being authentic and faithful to my true self. I'm still not there yet either - I back down from what I'm feeling to a point still, I exercise mental-self-punishment on a regular basis for not doint things the "right" way, etc., but I am progressed in my faithfulness to self, and I'm in the pursuit of total devotion to my personal truth. That truth is relative and not absolute is a totally different topic, so we won't go there tonight.
One of the things I've experienced with these baby-steps I've taken in my life to honoring myself and my feelings is what Caroline Myss calls "separation or alienation from the tribe." She teaches that it's a primary part of each person honoring their purpose in life, to abandon to some degree their community, tribe, family or culture. I have experienced this to a great degree on many, many levels. Let me give you an example:
I served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Santiago, Chile. The culture of a missionary in this religion is extremely concise; meaning, everything a missionary does, from they way they dress, to what time they go to bed, to how often they speak to their parents, is completely surrendered to the mission rules of the Church for 18 months-2 years. A missionary is told in training that they've given their life for the next year or two to God, and that every second and every breath now belongs to Him, and that the Church has been directed on how we are to use that time. Period. The leaders in my area were particularly orthodox with the rules.
I lasted for about a year before I could no longer honor the rules and live with myself. I didn't believe the Church's teachings because I had found truth through my studies of the teachings of Jesus and it didn't match up. I went through about 3 months of counseling while I was told to still continue as a missionary. It's a long story, and not a particularly useful one, so I won't get in to it, but the bottom line was that I finally had to put my foot down and say, "No! You can't tell me what I feel in my heart! I know I'm not broken because I feel the love of God in my life and it's encouraging me to stop this!" I was assigned for the remaining 3 months of my mission to work in an office where I was no longer asked to follow the rules of the mission.
It was HUGE for me! And on a superficial level I was totally guilt-laden, but on a deeper level I was LIBERATED! But the important thing here was that I found myself in a position in life where I had to choose between myself and my tribe.
Just two days ago I was asked to participate in a reunion for the missionaries. I declined the invitation. (It didn't feel appropriate to show up at a religious meeting touting that I left the church and became a Tarot reader... lol). It was still sad and hard for me, but it became very clear to me in the last 6 months of my mission that because of the culture of the mission, I would never have both my truth and my tribe. I do, however, maintain the friendships that matter most to me and that honor my decision.
Have you ever done this? Have you ever felt compelled to step away from a belief, culture, friend, family or community that made it impossible for you to be true to yourself? If you have, you're not alone. Every great person has to some degree.
Jesus, for example, left Nazareth and when he returned to share all he'd learned and become, he was rejected and sent off. Gautama (the Buddha) ran away from home to begin his journey to enlightenment. Ghandi studied in England and then lived in South Africa for many years, before returning home and initiating a revolution (which is a movement to change the culture of the tribe). Abraham moved to Canaan. Moses fled from Egypt to become a herdsman. Etc, etc.
So the question is this: why oh why is it necessary and important to distinguish yourself from your tribe?
The answer lies in every one of Carl Jung's teachings ... ha ha. Jung teaches in The Undiscovered Self that community in general, be it political, religious, familial, regional, cultural, etc., requires that a standardization of some form be accomplished. He says that the way that WE interpret the concept of community, WE adhere to a statistical belief system of averages. That is, our community is defined by the "average" situation found within it. It's a statistical approach of finding the common middle-ground. We sometimes call it "fairness" or "compromise."
So if the "average" American is 5 feet 7 inches tall, what are the odds of YOU being 5 feet 7 inches tall?
But here's the deal: who cares what the ODDS are - you are an individual human being and comparing you to the "average man" as specified in a community is comparing you to absolutely nothing. Because the "average man" doesn't exist which means that to "consider how the average person would act" would mean to "consider something that isn't reality." Jung says that reality consists of nothing but exceptions to the rule. "...the individual psyche, just because of its individuality, is an exception to the statistical rule and is therefore robbed of one of its main characteristics when subjected to the leveling influence of statistical evaluation," (p. 48)
Here's the problem. Let me quote a popular scripture from my local culture: "It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief," (The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 4:13). Now this is a noble scripture - the good of the many outweighs the good of the one or the few, right?
But there's a problem with the psychology behind this teaching. This teaching insinuates that the community is more important than the individual. It expresses a fear of the power of the individual, and it teaches that the power of the individual must be squelched if it threatens the belief of the many!
I can see how in the context of the story of wicked King Laban and heroic Nephi it is a possible moral teaching, but when taken out of this explicit context, it's implications are powerfully detrimental to the psyche of an individual! I would even argue that in the context of the story it's a risky thing to say. This type of attitude creates what is called the "mass man" or the person who puts the values, ideals and truths of his tribe above his own. In fact, he never ventures to find out what his own beliefs are, because he wouldn't want to upset the status quo of the community. It's comfortable to belong to a community, because you just follow the already established rules and you never have to own your personal power.
...post never finished...
...post never finished...
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