Iow, safety in numbers. To be an individualist requires, to a certain extent, the willingness to ignore the discomfort of being thought odd, backward, or an outcast of one sort of another. Groups generally seem to have the strength of numbers, which I view as vulnerable to scrutiny and to decline. The integrity of the group always depends on the individuality integrity of the ones making up that group. That's the inherent weakness of group-think.

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"Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." -anonymous

I do, and you are correct, I get attacked for it by the type of person who insists on group think being 'better' than what I do - which is be me. Gandy for instance can't stop himself from attacking me, because I think differently than he does.



"Think as I think," said a man,
"Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad."

And after I had thought of it,
I said, "I will, then, be a toad."

Stephen Crane said it best.

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Hope is the dream of the waking man.
Aristotle

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:6-8

I remember the first time I heard the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. Man, did that one resonate!