The Hive vs The Individual

An underlying paradigm that fuels both individual

reasoning and collective social policy is whether
humanity progresses better when one serves as a unit
in a colony, to the extreme, a hive mind with each unit
set in place and performing distinct roles and the other
being the celebration of individuality, personal choice
and freedom of action. The notion of balance in itself is
an unsatisfactory one for aligning ever so much to one
side divests you of anothers spoils. Just as much is the
fact that one cannot count on a stable equilibrium that
does not require constant motion while at the same
time a dynamic equilibrium is something that has
perpetually existed though it necessitates the need for
chaos, for disruption going against the notion of order
which one seeks to achieve.
Human-kind is inherently a contradiction of sorts.
Clamouring for both the individuals self-assertion while
also requiring a collective framework for the assertion
to be exhibited. As a species, we have achieved so
much and much more lies along the way but our
progress has never been one of isolation. If there has
been progress, it is owing to our capacity to continue
the journey where another had fallen in his trials.
Humankind thus inheres in this hive mentality at the
level where we constantly complement, continue,
rework and rebuild what one unit of the collective has
achieved and further a grander social cause.
The hive mind provides inherent roles and functions,
duties and responsibilities. It necessitates the giving

back to society, so to speak, and the furthering of

common goals to achieve what may be said to be a
grander, unified, richer life. Such social stratification
may help greatly in the achieving of balance, necessary
environment and stability needed for a society to
flourish. It necessitates sacrifice and the exchange of
personal liberty for security. It also requires an
adherence to norms and qualification based upon those
norms, deviance being unacceptable to the state of
equilibrium that has once been achieved or is to be
achieved. The goals are of every man, woman and child
and
their
identification
lies
with
a
greater
consciousness and the race is seen as one, one
organism with various parts and functions, each one
necessary and none demeaning, none elevating.
This is however tainted by the individual from the very
outset. The fact that the hive works to a common goal
in fact lends itself to an individual or a groups personal
conditioning. And though they may have been
conditioned from the same environment, a necessarily
independent force is required to be able to modify the
hive, one that has transcended the collective chains, in
order to suitably guide it in one direction or the other.
The hive is not objectively guided but simple wilfully
obeys whatever direction it is driven to, even if it be led
to the flame like a moth.