The Individual and the Collective

What a spectacular weekend extravaganza. Saturday's record release show went off without a hitch (unless you consider someone's hand getting filleted by a broken 40 oz. a hitch); the performances were spirited, skilled, and smacked of a Seattle underground richly dappled with talent while being partially obscured behind the mounds of other scenes. Thank you to all of the musicians kind enough to dress up, dress down, show up, mess around, and produce observable tapestries of audible light. And thank you Josephine for providing a space for these happenings to happen!

The show--from the micro of personalities up the scale through performers, attendees, and eventually the more macro of a venue like The Josephine and the larger scene of the NW--got me thinking about the pursuit of identity, and the individual's identity in relation to the composition of a community. This topic was covered extensively by the very influential and sometimes misunderstood Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung, who had this, among many other things, to say:

"...Self-realization seems to stand in opposition to self-alienation. This misunderstanding is quite general, because we do not sufficiently distinguish between individualism and individuation. Individualism means deliberately stressing and giving prominence to some supposed peculiarity rather than to collective considerations and obligations. But individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfillment of the collective qualities of the human being, since adequate consideration of the peculiarity of the individual is more conducive to a better social performance than when the peculiarity is neglected or suppressed. The idiosyncrasy of an individual is not to be understood as any strangeness in his substance or in his components, but rather as a unique combination, or gradual differentiation, of functions and faculties which in themselves are universal" (122)

 The Portable Jung - Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious


I take this to mean that the freedom of the individual is instrumental in the cohesiveness of the group. If the individual is encouraged or allowed to develop according to his/her natural tendencies, a niche will develop that fulfills a particular function within the larger community. The leveling and standardization of personalities is often tyranny disguised as equality. No individual forced into an unnatural or stock position can meet their potential; if an individual can't meet their potential, there's very little hope of contributing to society in an effective or satisfying way. Therefore, self-knowledge, and what Jung calls individuation is necessary not only to stabilize the personality but to create a stable community where all feel useful, appreciated, and fulfilled. This is by no means a simple or easy process! Rather, it's a dynamic and challenging journey from primordial unconsciousness to enlightened self-awareness and balance, a journey we've been enacting since our slimiest origins, and one that civilization has too often confounded rather than encouraged.

This is where critical self-expression comes in. Every act is a partly-blind but determined thrust forward. Our creations are attempts to expose and understand. The things we make--be they music, scenes and situations, food, friendship, propositions, hypotheses, etc.--are part of an ongoing experiment in isolating that which makes us unique. These unique aspects of ourselves are in turn the foundations with which we build our communities. When we're in tact, aligned or at least attempting to align with our natures, the structures we build are lasting ones. Here's to lasting structures!

To the embryonic potential of all matter

And to the outlines of our future selves materializing through the mists of doubt!