Emma Rixhon - Philosophy
To what extent are acts of individual rebellion necessary for social progress?
are the only ones who can inform the herd-people of the inadequacies of society,
and bring about a positive revolution. However, Mill emphasizes that there are
few persons whose experiments would be improvements on society; there are
therefore a whole other number of individuals whose views would result in
social regression, or possibly stagnation. The actions of these key individuals are
not focused on however, and it is the presence of their original ideas which Mill
admires.
However the importance of individuals is not only reserved to those with
originality. As Mill believes society should primarily be viewed as an entity made
up of humans acting as individual
building
blocks,
it
follows
that
“when
there
is
more
life
in
the
units
there
is
more
in
the
mass
which
is
composed
of
them.” 7
This means that each person must flourish in order to bring about a greater
flourishing to their society. The threat however
is
that
“individuals
are
lost
in
the
crowd” 8 and
that
society
enforces
so
much
emphasis
on
the
majority’s
view
that
individual people and minorities become insignificant. The majority is viewed as
“the
public”
and
their
opinion
is
frequently
considered the right one. By
bestowing power on to the greatest number of agreeing individuals, we are
simply giving the power to the people who fit into the current mould of society.
These people who fit simply into the mould cannot therefore be the geniuses and
original
individuals
who
inspire
social
progress,
and
are
simply
a
“collective
mediocrity.” 9 This
ties
in
to
Nietzsche’s
ideas
as
the
philosopher
named
all
followers
of
society
“herd-men” 10 ; just as sheep are in herds, humans flock
together when they blindly
follow
their
society.
His
choice
of
the
word
“herd”
also implies that the non-individual members of society have a level of
consciousness closer to animals than the individuals. Nietzsche also writes that
“the herd-man in Europe today makes himself out to be the only permissible
kind of man” 11 saying that these herd-men admire peaceful, calm, and agreeable
people rather than those who outwardly rebel. There is a direct correlation with
ibid. p72
ibid. p75
9 ibid. p75
10 Tanner, M. 2000 p40
11 Tanner, M. 2000 p40
7
8
208
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