The society we live in does not respect the individual. The society we live in does not give the dissident, the whistleblower, nor the revolutionary their flowers. The society we live in wants you to believe in a falsity that introspection will make you narcissistic and selfish because “you don't want to hang out anymore.” It is time to reclaim your right to a dark night of the soul.

The collective and the individual are seeking to come into balance. We approach this balance practically by beginning with ourselves. No more sacrificial virgins for successful harvests; it's time to bring your own offering.

The era of the individual is rooted in presence. Many of us do not have the skills necessary to show up in the community we want. Being in the world is also a skill. Sobriety and presence are a practice, not an entrance exam into the superior society.

The era of the individual wants us to reattach to our intuition and rebuild self-trust. When we do this, we stop losing ourselves in the impressions of others. Just like our ancestors used their intuition to distinguish poisonous plants, you'll use yours to survive this man-made ecological disaster. The era of the individual wants you to know when you're being lied to.

We have been surviving in groups for a long time.

Guilt is when we feel bad for doing something wrong. Shame is when we feel bad because we are wrong. Shame is an evolutionary feeling. Shame's function is to push us back into the collective to repair ties with the people we depend on to survive. Shame drives us to repair ties with those we depend on, driving accountability, apology, and reconciliation. But like all things, shame operates through a double-edged sword. The most obvious example of our time is a child being raised by an abusive parent. To survive, the child has to attune themselves to their neglectful caregiver, creating in a false idol in the process.

To unlearn the myth of “if I become good enough, parent will stop hurting me,” you begin at understanding what a child is owed. Child abuse survivors, who have gone down the path of recovery, have a lot to teach the world about standing up to power. An abusive parent is a mirror of the thieving landlord, the overdemanding boss, the carceral state, and the genocidal church. The apple doesn't fall far from the tower.

To reckon with child abuse on a personal level is to acknowledge what was, grieve what should have been, and finally, live and do what must be done. This is a blueprint for the collective. We are at the stage of grieving. The climate clock is ticking us down to what must be done.

The function and physiological imprint of shame is proof of the collective's influence on the individual. And I am tired of shame's threats. If shame wants us to repair communal ties and seek safety in numbers, then now is the time to question the quality of those ties. I am tired of being backed into the corner of likability to survive.

Do they (parents) like me enough to feed me? Do they (friends) like me enough to respect me? Do they (landlords) like me enough to house me? Do they (employers) like me enough to pay me?

I am bored of the collective mourning of a lost “community” infrastructure. The “third spaces” nostalgia needs to be revealed for what it really is: as a dream for the future. When we reclaim it as such, we turn a lament into a demand. This guides us forward.

The era of the individual is a calling to reclaim the concept of discipline from the hard rituals of hypermasculine institutions. If you grew up with patriarchal influences that used 'discipline' to mean 'punishment,' you need to re-examine what it means to receive and deliver consequences. If you grew up learning that 'structure' meant 'obedience,'' the era of the individual will challenge your allegiance to ghosts.

I have tried to build a community through collective sacrifice ('the political goal is bigger than me') and everybody burned out and didn't talk to each other for five years. Then I tried to build a community through likability ('is everybody having fun?) and it turns out everybody's favorite part of going out is the intimate smoking room conversations.

Individuality has gifts too. Learn them.