Theory Cartoons—Individual and Group

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On this date in Round and Square History 

31 May 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 05-31
31 May 2012—The Accidental Ethnographer: Ocean and Isle 2a
31 May 2011—Endings: The Death of Captain Cook

[a] Individuality The New Yorker 2014 06-02

This cartoon lies at the heart of all social theory (theorizing). Period. Who am I? Who are we? This has bedeviled Western scholars for the better part of two centuries (and their utter inability to comprehend broader movements beyond individuality are baffling). 

[b] Individual/Society RF

So-called "Eastern" thinkers have pondered this, too. Sometimes...individual, family, clan, and society blend and merge. Should we leap at that?

I don't think so (although it is intriguing).

Only in the last century (I hear you Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, George Herbert Mead, David Riesman, and Pierre Bourdieu, and Paul Ricoeur) have Western theorists really began to engage the issue in this cartoon.

And think about it. Project yourself into the cartoon. You watch MSNBC...like a whole bunch of others. You watch FOX News...like a whole bunch of others. You identify with climate change; you don't. 

David Riesman had this nailed sixty years ago. Don't kid yourself about your "individuality." Yes, I saw the person on the bus today taking "selfies." You are (and it is not all your fault) "other-directed." Get over it, and read The Lonely Crowd (a few decades too late).

That we haven't even really begun to engage this theoretical question (and NOT ONE is more important) is baffling.

[c] Individuality...and Sociality RF