I heard an expression this week. When someone couldn’t corral a particular group together, he blurted out, “It’s like herding cats with you folks!’ Cats are very individualistic and very independant. It is said that one doesn’t own a cat, but a cat owns you. Their only social structure is their young. These attributes of individuality and independence could also be said of all predators.
Whereas animals, be they of a herdable or independent nature live their lives in response to their own inner instincts. We as humans, have been given the nature of ‘free will’. As such, we can chose to live our lives like the lone predator who instills fear and indiscriminately kills in order to remain at the top of the food chain, or we can be a social creature living by the rules of an organized society. We have a choice in the matter. For example, because of the individualistic independence of its adherents, any given group may find it difficult to come to consensus on either small or great matter. As a result, its own inability to govern itself through consensus renders it vulnerable. History shows that, like the nature of the territorial predator who lives to destroy the other, such groups end up destroying themselves from within On the other hand, we have also seen in history that a group who allows itself to be coagulated into a strong common ideology without check and balance systems can be led into empirical evils. Our wisdom as human beings is to chose when to be what. There are times when one needs to stand from among the multitude as a reminder of the rule of law, but there are other times when, just in order to prevent societal breakdown into tribal wars, the value of strength through consensus transcends that of being right as an individual. This latter exercise is the hardest one, but I would also say the most honorable one. It is the type of loyalty to a cause that makes our army and special forces able to do their job of defending the nation; that allows the police to be a coordinated force to protect the people. It is also the force that allows firefighters, EMT’s, and all first-responders to act in an efficient coordinated manner in order to save lives. All these people serve most of their lives under the command of others whether they like them or not, and sometimes even whether they agree with them or not. My mother-in-law was a nurse and she used to tell us how in her days even the nursing profession had a chain of command. Among other things I am a History teacher. I watch our present world rapidly changing. It seems to change so fast that it can hardly keep pace with itself. I pray that our leaders will have the wisdom to know when to stand, and when to sit, learning to work in consensus in order to keep the strength that comes from a united front.
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