We All Make A Difference Because We’re All Different
The individual always faces a dilemma in becoming part of a group or collective. Questions arise regarding the equation of what is given up by the individual in order to be part of the collective. Can I be free and in relationship? Can I be unique and compliant? Can I take risks, be innovative and be secure at the same time? Will my individuality be subverted to conformity within the group?
In fact, the reason each individual in a group is capable of making a difference is because we each are different. Our differences brought together with a common vision and mission give the collective, family, tribe, institution, corporation, community, city, state, country all the component parts to create a vehicle/container that moves the entire group forward with the creativity, generativity and resilency necessary to benefit the individual and the whole. To best serve the collective, rather than deny our differences and diversity, we must fully express ourselves. That is how we make a difference.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian minister, philosopher, and naturalist of the early 19th century who championed self-reliance and self-expression, and had a strong influence on Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s work on behalf of individualism, the natural world and civil disobedience inspired Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandala. In spite of his emphasis on individuality, Emerson saw our individuality in a collective context.
At the same time, Emerson saw each individual as a creator of their own unique world and saw the power and potential of diverse individuals compounded through their interconnection. The co-creative power of the individual and the group increased the capacity to survive, change, evolve and innovate. Everywhere he looked in the natural world, he saw immense diversity and the interconnectedness of the web of life. He saw nature as not separate from but rather a mirror of the human experience. Underlying and beyond the natural world, he saw a unity in the cosmos. This both/and view of the uniqueness of the individual and the interconnectedness of all creation allowed him, for example, to look at a river and be reminded of the flow of reality.
His transcendent view of an underlying unity in common for all of the natural world including each of us, moved him to form a club known as the “Transcendentalist Club”. One of its members noted “we are called like-minded because no two of us think alike.”
For Emerson, the individual who awakened to a transcendent universality and inter-connection among all empowered their own imagination, strength, gifts and talents. By identifying, claiming and then expressing our unique talents, we grow in authenticity. In a collective, through service to a “greater good” and a vision bigger than our own personal self-interest, we become not more like others, but more like ourselves.
So, not only is it possible to be an authentic individual in the context of a collective, it is necessary. It is by being different that we are able to make a difference.
Reference:
Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, Tom Callanan,
The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly.
San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009.
