THE VECTOR OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

Collectivism, Individualism, and Omnicentrism Collectivism

Yasuhiko Genku Kimura

Collectivism is a mythical ideology that has kept humanity chained to the Matrix.

Collectivism is the belief that the collective—i.e., group, community, society, nation, state, race, gender group, ethnic group, etc.—is the valid unit of reality and the standard of value. It holds that the individual human being has reality only as part of the collective and value only insofar as he or she conforms to and serves the collective. Thus it upholds the primacy in reality and the supremacy in value of the collective over the individual.

Collectivism always inevitably leads down to some form of domination hierarchy because the only way in which the collective can subjugate the human individuals is if there is a structural bifurcation into two basic classes of people, in which one is the “ruler” that exploits collectivist ideas to control and rule; and the other is the “ruled” that is controlled and ruled through their belief in collectivism by the chosen representative of the collective—the “elite” or the “ruling class”.

The collectivists view as irreconcilable contradiction the dynamic complementarity of tension and compression that in concert holds sociotensegrity. They select the tension (the collective) over the compression (the individual), and seek to suppress the compression in the hyper- valuation of the tension.

Sociotensegrity cannot be sustained without compressive forces (people). Therefore, the “ruler” manages to maintain a necessary degree of compressive forces by indoctrinating the “ruled” with collectivism—by turning the masses into semi-automatons who are not capable of independent thinking but only incogitant groupthink.

Thus, collectivism maintains that an elite endowed with special knowledge and qualification should rule the rest. In the world of politics, the elite form a ruling class that rules the masses through a statist government. In religion or spirituality, the elite are the priests or the “gurus” with legions of adoring and uncritical followers.

Communism, socialism, fascism, Nazism, imperialism, totalitarianism, despotism, corporatism, statism, racism, sexism, genderism—all these ideas and movements are

manifestations of the collectivist ideology.

Democracy, as practiced, is also a form of collectivism. Democracy, since the time of the Greeks (that sentenced Socrates to death), has always been mobocracy—the tyranny of the majority over the minority. Democracy is the finite game of the ruling elites indoctrinating and manipulating the masses, through schooling and propaganda, in order to obtain the majority and exercise power over the masses.

If we were to transcend the Matrix and to heal the self and the world, we must eradicate every kind of collectivist ideology, as the past generations eradicated primitive mythical beliefs.

Individualism

Individualism places higher value on the compression over the tension in the necessary balance and complementary dynamics of tension and compression of sociotensegrity.

Philosophically, individualism upholds the primacy in reality, and the supremacy in value, of the individual over the collective. Individualism holds that the individual, not the collective, is the valid unit of reality and standard of value in and for human affairs.

Individualism regards every individual as a free, independent, sovereign agent who inherently possesses unalienable rights to his/her life and to all of his/her property, derived from the very nature of “all men” as being “created equal” according to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” (in the words of “The Declaration of Independence”).

Individualism holds that a truly civilized society, or any form of peaceful voluntary association, cooperation, or co-existence among individuals, can be achieved on the basis of the recognition of individual rights; and that a collective as such has no rights other than the individual rights of its participants.

Individualism holds that there is only one kind of human rights—individual rights. When we honor and protect individual rights, we honor and protect every individual’s rights. Therefore, there is no need for any such “collectivist rights” as “women’s rights” or “minority rights.” The single reach of individual rights equally covers everyone.

Unlike the collectivists, the individualists do not evaluate people on the basis of such collective traits as their race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or nationality, but entirely on the basis of their individual merit or “the content of their character,” as Martin Luther King, Jr. said.

Individualism is the necessary philosophic premise and direction for the exodus from the Matrix but not sufficient. Its insufficiency is two-fold:

(1) Individualism requires that the person be self-responsible and in self-integrity, which it is in the nature of human psychology to avoid at the current stage of general human development in morality and rationality.

Individuality does not grow automatically. Individuality is not bestowed by virtue of being born human but must be self-bestowed, self-earned, and self-developed. For this reason, an authentic individual with authentic individuality is rare.

(2) The individuals exist inside various networks of relationships, the totality of which we call the society or the world. Individualism is fundamentally a moral philosophy, and has no systematic provisions for the functionality of society, for which it relies on the moral rectitude of the human individuals.

Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, was a brilliant moral philosopher and exemplary in moral rectitude. Had every other human being been like him, capitalism would have worked and humanity could have achieved universal prosperity and abundance. John Adams, the second U.S. president after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, stated: 

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate

to the government of any other.

Because of these insufficiencies of individualism, collectivism has reigned over individualism in the social and political domains as the organizational principle throughout all of human history. Yet, unlike collectivism, individualism should not be discarded; it should be further developed and transformed into omnicentrism.

Omnicentrism

Omnicentrism is not primarily an ideology but a methodology designed for the synergetic co- evolution of the individual and the society. Omnicentrism is the integrated and synchronized application of the scientific method to both social engineering and individual development for the evolutionary optimization of omni-integrity.

The paradigm of human existence and world affair is predominantly based on ideology or belief. Omnicentrism replaces this paradigm with the scientific paradigm. When we observe the state of the world today, it is obvious that we have not found real solutions to many of the problems of the world. Instead of endlessly arguing who is right from ideology, it behooves us to experiment with various models and hypotheses proposed and then see if any works.

If a model works, we will examine how it works and on what kind of scale. Then, we can explore innovative ways to improve it or to expand the scale of its application. If it does not work, then we will discard them and construct a new model or a hypothesis with which to experiment.

The ideological approach keeps humanity in the mode of antagonism, self-righteousness, and futile argumentation. The scientific approach leads humanity to find and pursue increasingly better ways. The scientific method is a demonstration of the principle of what I call ‘alignment beyond agreement’ in which a quest is primary and an answer is secondary.

Omnicentrism is based on the cosmological understanding of the acentric-omnicentric universe first imagined and formulated by Giordano Bruno more than four centuries ago, combined with Buckminster Fuller’s scientific general systems theory of the universe— Synergetics.

Omnicentrism sees the world (and the universe) as a complex omnicentric system of tensegrity structures whose systemic integrity consists in the dynamic integration of psychosemiotic and sociosemiotic integrity. The individual human being is the complex self-world system; the world is the complex world-self system. Whereas collectivism and individualism reduce this complex system into the primacy of either the collective or the individual (the self), omnicentrism accepts the whole complexity for what it is without reductionism.

Omnicentrism looks at the entire dynamic complexity of the tension and the compression, of the vertices and the vortices, of the inter-communication and the intra-communication, and of the collective and the individual, and through experimentation comprehensively discovers ways to maximize sociotensegrity and optimize sociosemiotic integrity. (See “The Infinite Game Platform for the Creation of an Omnicentric Civilization” paper.)

The Vector of Human Evolution

Homo sapiens (or Homo sapiens sapiens) is the only extant species of the genus Homo. This has been the case since the extinction of

Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) forty millenniums

ago. If the genus Homo still has an evolutionary potential, it is possible that a new species or

subspecies of it may emerge in the future. At the same time it is also possible or even probable that Homo sapiens will become extinct.

The impermanence about which the Buddha spoke twenty-five centuries ago applies not only

to all human (and sentient) beings but also to the human species as a whole. Inside the cosmic

scale of time we verily exist for a very brief moment of time as individuals and as a species.

When we thus view our individual lives and the affairs of the world from the cosmic

perspective, what really matters in life becomes clearer. Then we can become more sapient (wise) and worthy of the name Homo sapiens.

For the last twenty-five years, I have used the term the ‘singular cosmic (or kosmic) destiny’ to designate the individual human being and the term the ‘omnicentric world’ or the ‘omnicentric civilization’ to designate a new world or civilization to come as the individuals realize their own singular cosmic destinies.

The vector of human evolution is in the direction of individual differentiation. The more evolved you are the more individual, unique, and singular you become. Great masters are unique. Their work has their own unique signature. The seven character dimensions that I discussed above are generalized principles for human character development and for psychotensegrity maximization. Yet, what emerges out of the realization of these generalized principles is an increasingly unique and singular individual of great and strong character.

The purpose of human life is to be. The purpose of your life is to be you. You were born for no other purpose than to be you. Yet, having been enworlded and enculturated inside the Matrix, we have been programmed not to be our own self but to be somebody—‘not-self’. That is, we have been prevented from fulfilling our life’s purpose.

When we were born, we were merely reproduced. Most people remain just that—an episode in the long chain of sexual reproduction inside the Matrix. However, you can give birth to your self through awakening to your own cosmic singularity, discovering and playing your signature infinite game, and exploring the immense possibility of your existence. In giving birth to your self, you enter the Cosmos beyond the Matrix—the Primary Universe beyond the secondary universe.

This is self-healing as self-realization—the self-discovery of your unique significance and self- development of your singular cosmic destiny. It is the self-bestowal of the birth and growth of your soul in Reality beyond the Matrix.

When those who are thus self-healing gather together in their ‘sychrodestiny’ in pursuit of their own singular cosmic destinies, the world begins to heal itself, transforms itself, and becomes the joyful playground for their infinite game.