31 December 2025
Individual and
Community
They are not opposing entities; rather, one
exists insofar as the other exists. In other words, there is no individual
outside the community (society), and no community without the individual.
Society shapes us: what we think, who we are, fundamentally depends on the
culture in which we live. If I, a man of the twentieth century, think that war
is an evil, that women should not be struck even with a flower, that homosexuals
are simply a variation, it is because society, in a thousand ways and through
voices often unnoticed, has taught me this. Had I lived a few centuries ago, I
would have had different ideas, perhaps even opposite ones.
On the other hand, society is determined by individuals: every action of ours in
the family, at school, at work, among friends, in politics contributes to
creating the world in which we live.