Extreme individualism rebels against nature’s design of the human being

On January 29, 2012, in Liberty, Philosophy, by Sanjeev Sabhlok

People suffer extreme mental agony "merely" by being kept alone. The human being is designed to be be a social animal. That is why he is so susceptible to arguments based on "social fairness" or "envy" or "social status". The whole thing is intuitively about SOCIETY and our place in that society. Even a child understands this. And that is why religions and cults flourish; and tribes, and wars: because they build on nature's design, not rebel against it.

Any system of thought that ignores these basic facts about the design of the human being will flounder in the real world. Anarcho-capitalism ignores these basic truths, hence has few (if any) prospects of being widely adopted. I therefore urge my many anarcho-capitalist friends to abjure their blind faith and join the space of REALITY, which is represented by classical liberalism.

The following extract by Sidney Rittenberg is a sobering reminder of the torture of (ten years of) solitary confinement (in China):

Door No. 11 opened and clanged shut behind me. The bare cell held a ''bed'' (a wooden door laid across two shortened saw-horses), a cold-water sink, a commode with no seat. That was it. There was a steel grate over the barred half-window overhead and another around the two light bulbs, a brighter one for daytime and a dimmer one for night. The cell was about six paces long and three paces wide – little room for exercise. A peephole in the door and another by the commode afforded the guards a clear view. Solitude without privacy.

For the first four-plus years of my second incarceration, prisoners were not permitted to lie down outside of regulation sleeping hours. We were not permitted to voice any sound. Later, we were permitted to turn over in bed at night – before that, one had to sleep facing the guard, with hands between neck and navel.

I lived like that in a Chinese prison outside Beijing for 10 years. Earlier, I had been locked in solitary for six years, in an old warlord prison with no plumbing and no steam heat – the first year in a cell that was kept in total darkness.

US scientists have pointed out that solitary confinement is a form of torture and that few can retain their sanity after a long period in isolation. It is routinely used in China to force confessions out of suspects. I know many who have been through this, and I have seen that the survivors are often partially or wholly mentally crippled.

During my first year in solitary darkness, after being forced to take some sort of drugs, my mind collapsed into a state of indescribable anguish and hysteria. I lived in this extreme depression and loss of all control for months, until my captors changed my living conditions and gave me some new drugs, which they said were to relieve the effects of the earlier drugs. They also, for a few months, provided me with the companionship of friendly guards outside the cell. I gradually regained my sanity, but I was left with strong post-traumatic panic syndrome for the next 20-odd years. I would suddenly start palpitating, break out in a cold sweat and feel a terrible pressure on my forehead as though it was being squeezed in an iron hoop. These attacks would last for less than one minute, but each time I was terrified that the horribly painful madness I had been through would return. [Source]

If you found this post useful, then consider subscribing to my blog by email:

Join the Freedom Team of India or become a Freedom Partner.

Google

8 Responses to “Extreme individualism rebels against nature’s design of the human being”

Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

January 29, 2012 at 2:24 am

Extreme individualism rebels against nature’s design of the human being http://t.co/FDqybjp2 #liberty #philosophy
All Indian Blogs says:

January 29, 2012 at 2:24 am

Extreme individualism rebels against nature’s design of the human being http://t.co/BcXBvZbH
Priya shivani says:

January 29, 2012 at 4:18 pm

Extreme individualism rebels against nature’s design of the human being http://t.co/FDqybjp2 #liberty #philosophy
Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

January 30, 2012 at 11:08 am

@PolvolterDnkymn This might help you consider my point: http://t.co/sKjB0wUs
Yazdy Palia says:

January 30, 2012 at 9:47 pm

In the present case, Sanjeev, I think the example is not correct. Individualism according to anarcho capitalists does not mean living all by one self. It means that there should not be any control over the individual. They believe that a government is not necessary but evil. There, they have gone a bit overboard.
I am not very clear about the idea, because, none of them are coming out with logical response to the so many fears one had of such a system. They speak of competing courts and competing police force. I asked them what happens when some crooks decide to have their own police force and their own courts. Their replies were very vague. In short they have not deliberated enough but just repeat like parrots some theory that some people have come forward with.
As I see, they are not very clear about the details as to how it would function. When questioned, they only come out with some vague answers.
Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

January 30, 2012 at 9:58 pm

Dear Yazdy

By no means am I implying that coercive solitary confinement represents “extreme individualism”. The reason I use this example is to emphasise that Aristotole was very right when he said that man is a social animal. That has implications.

One of the implications is that people are DRAMATICALLY influenced by others, even if subliminally. Social rejection, social isolation, deliberately ignoring others, etc., have very serious implications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_rejection To avoid such impacts, people will ignore reason and stick to the herd. Teenagers do that the most, but group think among adults is terribly common as well. And as the example of solitary confinement shows, it is BETTER to be half-insane (as in the society depicted in Orwell’s 1984) than fully insane by refusing to follow the crowd. It takes SERIOUS GUTS and mental discipline to ignore the crowd. Few, if any, are capable of doing that.

This also explains the Lucifer effect (http://www.lucifereffect.com/. It is RATIONAL at times to follow the EVIL leader than to be cast aside and ignored (or worse), thus potentially becoming insane. [Note, this statement must NOT be taken to be a justification of evil actions - for which I am firmly of the view that people always remain responsible]

What I’m saying is that we must NEVER forget human nature while propagating any philosophical perspective. We can’t change nature. That must be taken as a given.

Therefore, we must appreciate that there will be a tension between the individual and state/society, between the individual and religion, and so on. Regardless of his or her true beliefs, an individual will OFTEN behave as a group member. This cannot be avoided.

We must therefore recognise the social nature of man. No one should talk political philosophy without understanding the discipline of social psychology.

I think anarcho-capitalists speak thus – i.e. without understanding human nature. To them I urge: Know Thyself.

S
Yazdy Palia says:

January 30, 2012 at 10:50 pm

Dear Sanjeev,
Thank you for the time and your reasoning. I need to think over what you have explained. I may be an odd one out, for from my childhood, I have been a loner and have not followed the crowd. Following the crowd has never appealed to me and as such, I think I will always be different. In fact, I think I have so much time to think, precisely because I prefer to keep to myself.
I agree with you, that when an individual is put into a brutal environment for long, he tends to blend with the environment. Is it because of fear that he will be left out? I do not know.
The reason why I always insist on the primacy of individual rights is because, otherwise, it takes only one Stalin or his ilk to totally suppress all the individuals in society. Individual rights however does not mean that he has the right to interfere with the rights of other individuals. If this is guaranteed by a society, then neither individuals nor groups need to worry that injustice will be done to them. He will always live in a society that is fair and just.
Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

January 30, 2012 at 11:30 pm

Yazdy, let’s not forget that Hitler or Stalin used this SOCIAL aspect of human nature to impose their agendas. Fear was, of course, used, too. But Hitler’s main support came from his vocal anti-Jew and collectivist ideas for a greater Germany.

What I’m suggesting is that we need to harness this social side of man even as we aim to advance human liberty. Why is it that when an Anna steps forward to fast, thousands of people jump in, but when I write (or speak) about liberty, so few are excited about it? That’s because it is EMOTION that resonates with people. And emotion is social.

Even to advance liberty one needs to understand society – and man’s social nature.

S

Go To Top »