| As humans become more and more numerous, we become more and more common. Scarcity invokes protection, it gives an object value. Abundance produces acceptance, familiarity breeds contempt.
As a society we are moving away from the days when there were so few of us the individual played an important role in society. Now it's the group that's the smallest significant social unit. We all have to identify with some group or another to get our voices heard about the din produced by all the other groups. The internet's a great example. Thanks to linking, everything is connected to something else. A few pages exist in isolation, but they have no impact on the web. You only attain significance on the internet if people link to you and you to them. This is the age of the community.
That makes the individual less important, less significant. And some people can't handle that realization. Their delusions could not save them or those they made victims to their insanity. |