The argument that pits the whole against the self is a hollow one. It assumes a conflict that does not actually exist.

A community does not stand apart from the people within it. It is not a separate creature with its own blood and breath. It is made, moment by moment, by the choices, conduct, and character of those who belong to it. Strip away the individuals, and nothing remains to be defended, preserved, or invoked.

At the same time, no person exists that is not touched by belonging. People are shaped by shared customs, shared language, and shared memories. We inherit banners raised before us and we leave them behind when we are gone. A community may endure longer than any one member, but there is never a moment when it is anything other than the sum of it's individual living parts.

Even when someone stands alone at the end of a lineage, their identity was forged in relation to everyone else who stood beside them. That bond does not vanish because voices have gone quiet. It persists as an obligation, a memory, and it has meaning.

That bond, however, is never identical from one person to the next. No two people carry the same weight of loyalty, pride, grief, or devotion. A shared cause may be sacred, but it is never felt the same way by any two hearts. Someone may give their life for it. Some may give their labor. Another may give their dissent. All are still acting as individuals.

Belonging can give life purpose. It can make sacrifice meaningful. It does not, however, erase ownership of one's own will. A community is lived through individuals, not over them. When that truth is forgotten, what remains isn't unity, but a hollow symbol demanding obedience from the very people who give it life.

Penned by my hand on the 25th of Scarlatan, in the year 994 AF.