John Steward of Jesus
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Individuals and groups

October 16, 1980

Progress and decadence in this world are initiated through, promoted through, and climaxed because of, the wills and energies of individuals, not of groups. One must be concerned about the structure of groups only because these structures determine whether individuals will function freely or be inhibited by other individuals (kings, bureaucrats, etc.) “Groups” are only fictions or concepts which promote the acceptance of the limitations which one man enforces on the coercive or productive activities of other individuals. The only souls in the world are souls of individual human beings. There is no group soul, only similarities in individual souls who find mutual support and enrichment.

One should never put any trust in a group; one should only trust individuals, and seek to promote social structures which make it possible for them to respond to that trust, and structures which restrain or forbid any coercive activities of individuals vis-a-vis other individuals.

(Perhaps the ekklesia--the church--as the called out ones is significant. We should think more of Christians than of “the Church”)

Postscrjpt: One is well advised to will funds only to individuals, and never to groups. If there are no individuals in the group worthy of such trust, then jt would be folly to put more trust in the group.

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