The individual and his future

The individual and his future

by Jon Rappoport

July 13, 2015

(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Exit From The Matrix, click here.)

“It’s instructive to read what authors wrote about core values a hundred or two hundred years ago, because then you can appreciate what has happened to the culture of a nation. You can grasp the enormous influence of planned propaganda, which changes minds, builds new consensus, and exiles certain disruptive thinkers to the margins of society. You can see what has been painted over, with great intent, in order to promote tyranny that proclaims a greater good for all.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

Here I present several statements about the individual, written in 19th century America. The authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and James Fenimore Cooper were prominent figures. Emerson, in his time, was the most famous.

“All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.” — James Fenimore Cooper

“The less government we have, the better, — the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of [by] formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The former generations acted under the belief that a shining social prosperity was the beatitude of man, and sacrificed uniformly the citizen to the State. The modern mind believed that the nation existed for the individual, for the guardianship and education of every man. This idea, roughly written in revolutions and national movements, in the mind of the philosopher had far more precision; the individual is the world.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” — Henry David Thoreau

“They [conformists] think society wiser than their soul, and know not that one soul, and their soul, is wiser than the whole world…Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members….Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist…. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Can you imagine, today, any of these statements gaining traction in the public mind, much less the mainstream media?

Immediately, there would be virulent pushback, on the grounds that unfettered individualism equals brutal greed, equals (hated) capitalism, equals inhumane indifference to the plight of the less fortunate, equals callous disregard for the needs of the group.

The 19th-century men who wrote those assertions would be viewed with hostile suspicion, as potential criminals, as potential “anti-government” outliers who should go on a list. They might have terrorist tendencies.

Contemporary analysis of the individual goes much further than this.

Case in point: Peter Collero, of the department of sociology, Western Oregon University, has written a book titled: The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives:

“Most people today believe that an individual is a person with an independent and distinct identification. This, however, is a myth.”

Callero is claiming an absence of any uniqueness from person to person. He’s asserting there is no significant distinction between any two people. There aren’t two individuals to begin with. They’re a group.

This downgrading of the individual human spirit is remarkable, but it is not the exception. There are many, many people today who would agree (without comprehending what they are talking about) that the individual does not exist. They would agree because, to take the opposite position would set them on a path toward admitting that each individual has independent power—and thus they would violate a sacred proscription of political correctness.

These are the extreme conformists Emerson was referring to a century and a half ago.

Unable to partake in anything resembling clear thought, such people salute the flag of the Collective, blithely assuming it means “whatever is best for everyone.” Such questions as “who defines ‘best’” and “who engineers this outcome” are beyond their capacity to make distinctions. They rest their proud case in vagueness.

Without realizing it, they are tools of a program. They’re foot soldiers in a ceaseless campaign to promote collectivism (dictatorship from the top) under the guise of equality.


Exit From the Matrix


Let me repeat one of Emerson’s statements: “The antidote to this abuse of [by] formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.” The corollary: If there is no widespread growth of individuals and their independent thoughts, actions, and moral consciousness, if they don’t widen their horizons and spheres of influence, then in the long run what check is there on government?

Demeaning the individual is, in fact, an intentional operation designed to keep government power intact and expand its range.

Consider this question: If all opposition to overbearing, intrusive, and illegitimate government were contained in organized groups, and if there were no independent “Emersonian” individuals, what would be the outcome?

In the long term, those groups would stagnate and fail in their missions. They would be co-opted by government. Eventually, all such groups would be viewed as “special needs” cases, requiring “intervention” to “help them.”

That is a future without promise, without reason, without imagination, without life-force.

That is why the individual remains vital; above, beyond, and through any blizzard of propaganda.

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

7 comments on “The individual and his future

  1. Dimitri says:

    Here’s another Emerson gem from his essay, The American Scholar: “The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is for you to know all, it is for you to dare all”.

    I always thought I was born in the wrong century! Emerson made a good living as a speaker and writer with that kind of material. Where would he find an audience today?

  2. I found it understandable now of how important it is to keep in touch with the authorship of the past. The Classics. As a touch-stone. A bench – mark to compare to the onslaught of so much disinformation.
    The morals, the fiber, of a greater pas,t from some of those fine souls and artists that have lived on this plain.  Their commitment to true freedom, art, imagination and individualism.

    How long before these works are lost to oblivion, in a new round of book burnings. Of course on the other hand…book burning has never really stopped, has it?… The hollywood illusion factory is constantly blurring or changing, for as is stated, the sake of ‘artistic license’, but really to quiet the logical power of classic literature; Art for art’s sake…yeah ok.
    Those greater artists of the past their aims to free the mind rather imprison it.
    Which brings me to my point Jon.

    In viewing Peter caller publications it was interesting and not so interesting to find Callero Is a Hegel fan. Dyed in I G Farben blue.
    Another Hegelian control freak.
    Hegel is a dictatorship’s philosopher.

    In actuality the basis of Callero’s philosophy of sociology could be cited as totally Hegelian…truly original thinker (Callero), worthy of tenure at an illustrious American University.

    In point of view it is not so surprising that what he teaches is a regurgitation of the same old party line. Problem/Reaction/Solution.

    Callero’s university text-book and collabrative effort, with J. A. Pilianvin, “The Self-Society Dynamic: Cognition, Emotion, and Action ” is the not so new spin on an old tired Hegelian dialectic.
    Set the ‘Problem/Cognition’, wait for the ‘Reaction/Emotion’, present the pre-determined ‘Solution/Action’.
    Game, set match.

    Cognition/Emotion/Action regurgitated equally to the Hegel notion of Problem/Reaction/Solution. English is such an interesting language…N’est ce pas.

    Other interesting titles by our unoriginal Professor of Mind-Fuck , “Giving Blood: The development of an Altruistic Identity”. Ah self-sacrifice for the sake of the collective.
    We are vampires, vampires need blood. The corrupting, the mixing, the constant blurring of individuals boundaries.

    I have decided to put Callero’s “From Role-Playing to Role Using: Understanding Role as Resource”. On my summer reading list.
    And I am having a conniption in anticipation of what uniqueness is in his book; “Role-Identity and Reasoned Action in the Prediction of Repeated Behavior.”

    Callero is secured tenure in a University as a reward for his ‘role’ as a shrunken brain, shrinking heads rather than a mind expander, an obedient Android in a homogenized society.

    Sad to see that College life has fallen so far.
    It’s now Achtung baby!

    We don’t pay enough attention to the other ‘Paperclip Idiots’ that came to America. The ones that entered as sociologists, and psychiatrists and social reformers, and so forth, that infected the post-war generation with their Nazi idealsm and polluted philosophies of a New World Order .

  3. Gökmen says:

    Great quotes and links to older articles which I haven’t had chance to read, thanks.

    Around the Anatolia, until 1600s, there were great mystics. One of them was Rumi, William Blake of Anatolia for his time and more.
    Some Quotes from Rumi:

    “Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself.”
    ————————————–
    “Be empty of worrying.
    Think of who created thought!
    Why do you stay in prison
    When the door is so wide open?”
    ————————————–
    “I have lived on the lip
    of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
    knocking on a door. It opens.
    I’ve been knocking from the inside.”
    ————————————–
    “These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”
    ————————————–
    My heart is so small
    it’s almost invisible.
    How can You place
    such big sorrows in it?
    “Look,” He answered,
    “your eyes are even smaller,
    yet they behold the world.”
    ————————————–
    “You think you are alive
    because you breathe air?
    Shame on you,
    that you are alive in such a limited way.
    Don’t be without Love,
    so you won’t feel dead.
    Die in Love
    and stay alive forever.”
    ————————————–
    “Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.”
    ————————————–
    “Look past your thoughts, so you may
    drink the pure nectar of This Moment.”
    ————————————–
    “silence is the language of god,
    all else is poor translation.”
    ————————————–
    “There is a basket of fresh bread on your head, yet you go door to door asking for crusts.”
    ————————————–
    “The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore.”
    ————————————–
    “I went inside my heart
    to see how it was.
    Something there makes me hear
    the whole world weeping.”
    ————————————–
    “Now be silent.
    Let the One who creates the words speak.
    He made the door.
    He made the lock.
    He also made the key.”
    ————————————–
    “My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
    ————————————–
    Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
    ————————————–
    “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”
    ————————————–
    “And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” -Rumi

  4. KSKing says:

    TPTB have tried to erase the ‘individual’ from modern society. The individual is an immediate and imminent threat to the ruling Oligarchy. They forced the introduction of the public school system whose primary purpose was to destroy the ‘independent’ person. In their place was to be a compliant, obedient slave. Who believed that dependence on a corporation was better than dependence on one’s self. Who were propagandized to believe that working in a factory was better than working on one’s own land. Who were tricked into believing that having more material goods was equivalent to being more free.

    The poisoning of Americans started with public education. Read ‘The Underground History of American Education’ by John Taylor Gatto and/or ‘The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America’ by Charlotte Iserbyt.

    The irony is that every GREAT ruling corporation was started by one or a couple of persons. Real entrepreneurs. Who took a chance and risked it all. THAT is the real spirit of America, that is the essence of free markets.

    And yet despite TPTB efforts to destroy the individual here we ARE!! We will not submit to their plans. We will not surrender our sovereignty. We will not take their poisonous vaccinations. We will not eat their toxic food. We will not drink their polluted waters. We will not willingly expose ourselves to their propaganda; fomented through TV, movies, newsprint, and the internet. We will not believe the lies of the main stream news. We will resist. For it is better to die on one’s feet than to serve on one’s knees.

    Live Free or Die

    A statement that even a few months ago I was not quite sure what it’s true meaning was. But now I understand fully. I am NOT someone else’s experiment. I am NOT someone else’s servant. No man has sovereignty over me or you, or anyone else. Just as the Creator intended.

  5. Avi says:

    Any individual is nothing but a form of life and the future of individuals is life, and their own life will never vanish for life has always been and always will be. every grass stick has a place as – this – grass stick in the book of life.

  6. Avi says:

    ultimately, as a man, one is responsible of his life and will be what he has been …

  7. sylphsandcloudships says:

    Thank you! I am always inspired by your writing and appreciate everything you write! Thanks again! Jeanne

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