<![CDATA[More on the tenacious value of the individual in the face of the force of conformity. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the most influential philosophers of his or any age, spent the last years of his life in virtual exile because of his writings. He died in 1778 and the French Revolution put those ideas into action a little more than a decade later. His determination to stick to his beliefs defines the value of the individual….
His Reveries of a Solitary Walker, written just two years before his death, was a reflection on his growing sense of satisfaction that, despite almost universal opprobrium, he was right.
All things considered, I think it is best to throw away my magic ring [a fantasy of invisibility he was exploring] before it makes me do something foolish. If men insist on seeing me as other than I am and are provoked into injustice by the mere sight of me, in order to spare them this sight it is better to flee their presence than remain invisible in their midst. It is up to them to conceal their actions from me, disguising their stratagems, avoiding the light of day, burrowing like moles deep into the earth. As for me, let them see me if they can, so much the better; but this is beyond them, instead of me they will never see anyone by the Jean-Jacques they have created and fashioned for themselves so that they can hate me to their heart’s content. I should be wrong then to be upset by the image they have of me; I ought to take no real interest in it, since it is not me that they are seeing.
So, I was reading Rousseau last night and wondering, “What if he had given in to the desire to be accepted, to the comforts of consensus. What a different world it would be. That’s the power of the individual: To change everything.]]>