Description
Muller gave three lectures: (1) The Basic Problems of Individuality: A Historical Perspective; (2) The Pressures Against Individuality; (3) The Prospects of the Individual. As he examined the contemporary stage of the evolution of freedom in human society, he found much to be pessimistic about, though he maintained that the western world will still be able to further the freedom of the individual. His first lecture began with an investigation of the complex nature of society in the contemporary West, and the pressures facing the man who desired to live as a creative individual. He saw three pressures felt by the individual: from social scientists who regard man as a cell with no independent existence; from anthropologists who claim that culture developed by itself without individual input; and from historians who further the 'hero-image' and concentrate on history as an abstract process. Instead, he asserts that we understand the creative individual as the most apparent agent of social and cultural change, and restore the individual's place in our studies. In addition to its academic threats, individuality was under pressures from historical conformity, a stereotyped 'bourgeois' image, and a failure to appreciate the true nature of Western achievements. His second lecture expanded upon these themes, arguing that the modern United States has the highest standard of low living ever, in which workers are employed at meaningless work. They have become machnical and standardized through the 20th century's organizational revolution, and so often feels insignificant and helpless, turning to consumption to try to create the illusion of individuality. Man has evolved to the point where his main function is to be a consumer; Muller felt that these pressures towards conformity were dangerous threats not only to individuality, but also to freedom.
