I don't really think there was ever any kind of real collectivity in the world. Different cultures have waged war against each other and themselves for thousands of years, and have hated each other for thousands of years.
In all honesty we probably better understand each other now than we ever have. I think it is also overemphasized that the individual was at some point in history more in tune with the rest of his society. The conflict between society and the individual is the natural result of any kind of society. And if anything, earlier societies unwillingness to respect the individual (well, besides the individuals who actually had power) probably made things much more disjointed then than now.
All the indigent farmers (the majority of society for a long time) throughout history were no more connected to the rest of the world than anyone today. Most of them just wanted to be left alone and not be terrorized by thieves or the government.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
