Flocking Together
It isn’t always easy to get the balance right between being yourself as an individual and connecting with others. Often connecting with others means compromising on the things that make you who you are.
To give a basic example - if you go to a restaurant alone, you can choose exactly the cuisine and the dishes that appeal to you. If you go with others, you might have to choose the restaurant and dishes that appeal to others. But who wants to eat alone, right?
Is it possible to connect with other people without compromising your individuality? Are there connections with others that, instead, enhance your individuality?
Nietzsche calls this kind of connection “friendship.” One of his favourite images for friendship is the image of seabirds flocking together over an open ocean.
I think this image is powerful. His idea seems to be that seabirds have a dangerous existence - adventuring out over the open sea, unsure what lies over the horizon. As the…
