Restraint

I just saw this comment on Facebook: Imagine every talking head, gathered like the surface of the tongue, sounding together as the meditative Om of Being..
…and I was about to reply to it with a zinger, something about sheep in a flock, or everybody standing up in a stadium and mouthing the same words while they put their hand over their heart and stare adoringly at a flag, or everybody kneeling, in a church or a mosque, and repeating the same formulaic words, the intent is the same, it is uniformity, it is conformity, if they can get everybody to say the same thing at the same time, make the same gesture at the same time, wear the same clothes at the same time, eat the same foods at the same time, watch the same TV show at the same time, then they, whoever the hell they are, can totally control the population, and our society, our whole crazy, flawed, close to anarchistic at times society, devolves into an Orwellian nightmare world. But, I didn’t.
Partly because, despite my incessant desire to turn every conversation on Facebook into an argument, the poster of that post clearly posted with good intent. They were talking about the world being a more peaceful, harmonious place and what kind of a horrible misanthrope would I have to be to take a dump all over that?
Also, though, after a bit of thought, I realized that there are two sides. While we are individuals, there are moments when conformity makes us stronger. If you are playing in a band, or on a sports team, it is the co-ordination between the individuals, it is everybody thinking as one and having the same goal that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts, that elevates every one of the individuals up to a higher level, and that’s a beautiful thing. If you stretch it out to thousands of people at a time, however, add weapons, and assume that the goal is killing other people, then you have armies and that is a very bad thing, very destructive to the kind of world I would like to be living in.
We are individuals, and that is a great thing. We are also part of something greater, unified with each other. That is a great thing. Finding the balance and keeping it positive, that is the challenge.