> http://mises.org/story/3076
>
> --
> The Fallacy of We
>
> Daily Article by Jim Fedako | Posted on 8/29/2008
>
> While watching the Olympics, we tend to cheer participants along
> national lines. We root for our country's athletes over those from the
> rest of the world. While there is nothing wrong with this fun
> diversion, the concept of the individual must never be lost amid the
> ideal of the collective — the belief that the members of the
> collective (the nation in this instance) are faceless automatons
> dedicated to serving the whole.
>
> Before I continue, let me introduce a mathematical term that will help
> expose the fallacy of the collective: the fractal. Briefly, a fractal
> is a shape that can be split into parts that are each as complex as
> the original shape itself. ...

> Before I continue, let me introduce a mathematical term that will help
> expose the fallacy of the collective...

> http://mises.org/story/3076
>
> --
> The Fallacy of We
>
> Daily Article by Jim Fedako | Posted on 8/29/2008
>
> While watching the Olympics, we tend to cheer participants along
> national lines. We root for our country's athletes over those from the
> rest of the world. While there is nothing wrong with this fun
> diversion, the concept of the individual must never be lost amid the
> ideal of the collective

> knucmo hotmail.com> wrote:
>

>> Before I continue, let me introduce a mathematical term that will help
>> expose the fallacy of the collective...

>
> Please let the collective cells of your body know that they are a
> fallacy. They will love to hear it.

> knucmo hotmail.com> wrote:
>

>> Before I continue, let me introduce a mathematical term that will
>> help expose the fallacy of the collective...

>
> Please let the collective cells of your body know that they are a
> fallacy. They will love to hear it.

> You hit upon my input here. It seems to me we exist as a dichotomy,
> where our aggregation is psychological to a great degree, and we act
> as individuals internally, but as collectives externally. I have for
> some time argued that we exist with concentric human identity, like
> circular waves a stone might make upon a placid pond, where the
> location the stone splashes is the primal self, and upon each
> concentric circle, we leave the primal self to take on grearter entity
> of a more collective identity.

> "tooly" bellsouth.net> wrote in
> news:RUOuk.20317$De7.14609@bignews7.bellsouth.net:
>

>> You hit upon my input here. It seems to me we exist as a dichotomy,
>> where our aggregation is psychological to a great degree, and we act
>> as individuals internally, but as collectives externally. I have for
>> some time argued that we exist with concentric human identity, like
>> circular waves a stone might make upon a placid pond, where the
>> location the stone splashes is the primal self, and upon each
>> concentric circle, we leave the primal self to take on grearter entity
>> of a more collective identity.

>
> Many persons do exactly that --- they identify themselves with some group
> whom they perceive to be "like them" in various ways (ways they consider
> important). They apparently gain some sense of security or enhanced stature
> by so identifying themselves. The point is, however, that those extended
> self concepts are variable within a community and are idiosyncratic to the
> individual. I.e., they reflect the individual's *perception* of the
> structure of his society, and of his role within it or relationship to it. ...

> Nor does it need to. The most common form is "teaming", identifying
> with a group that one perceives as persuing a common goal; like a
> football player identifing with his team or a union member identifying
> with his union buddies, or a Chamber of Commerce member identifying
> with his fellow merchants.

> Ed earthlink.net> wrote in
> news:3ae76a04-4e42-4094-ae57-667d957b0af3@e53g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:
>

>> Nor does it need to. The most common form is "teaming", identifying
>> with a group that one perceives as persuing a common goal; like a
>> football player identifing with his team or a union member identifying
>> with his union buddies, or a Chamber of Commerce member identifying
>> with his fellow merchants.

>
> Yes indeed. Civilized societies are comprised of thousands of such interest
> groups. A given individual may identify with or belong to many of them. All
> such groups attract a succession of members, who share that interest and
> thus perpetuate the identity of the group, until the number of such persons
> falls too low to sustain the group.
>
> The structure of such self-organized groups is quite different from that of
> natural societies, however. Individuals become members of the latter by
> accident of birth, not through any deliberate choice. Natural societies are
> randomly assembled; interest groups are consciously assembled. ...