How have you maintained your individuality within a group? How easily can you maintain your own ground when your family or a group or a nation is bent on actions, or infested with fear or anger, that you don’t feel comfortable with?

Even in a group we’re still individuals. I was aware of it during grade school and continued having being myself be a priority throughout high school. There is a consciousness that every society defines about what is acceptable and unacceptable, about what makes a person a success. It forms a sort of gravitational pull. Some call it a mass consciousness. For some people it’s not a problem. But some people spend some time pulling away from what is expected of them so they can find out who they are as an individual, who they are beyond what their society says they can be. The momentum of a large group of people can overwhelm the desires of an individual. Mob mentality is an example. We get a little more freedom from that gravitational pull, that group momentum, every time we choose to be a little different. And how can we express our uniqueness if we’re always trying to fit in with everyone else by being just like them? There’s a difference between harmony and sameness. Harmony in a song requires different notes, or it wouldn’t be harmony. Groups require variety in their membership in order for people to learn to be harmonious with each other.