There is no such thing as snow. Only snowflakes.

Jun 13, 2016

269

«They’re casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women…»
Margaret Thatcher, talking to Women’s Own magazine, October 31, 1987

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Once, a young atheist found himself in the Greek countryside. There, he met an old woman dressed-in-black, picking potherbs. They started talking to each other and the discussion progressed to God. The young man was a typical youth, meaning that at this age there’s a surplus of arrogance of knowledge.
– What is the proof that God exists? he asked the old woman.
– This, she answered.
She showed him the chicory she had just picked.

She didn’t tell him something wise, she just showed him the herb. It was so beautiful, so perfectly developed in its Fibbonaci symmetry that the young man began having doubts about his beliefs.

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When you observe nature all around you, its complexity and its diversity, the beauty of the World, the magnitude of the starry sky, it’s impossible not to be awe stricken.

This sensation that led all of the civilizations we know of – cold or hot, since the world began – to the belief that there is something else, something superior, a higher being or a greater plan.

The beauty of the planet that offers us hospitality gave birth to transcendence, spirituality and religiosity.

Moreover, there is something innate to man, something that he inherited or it could be an unusual manifestation of civilization, a social mutation that made him dread diversity. The impulsive spirituality turned into religion, power, war, extermination; extermination of the Other.

Every form of power seeks uniformity.

Be it (bad) education, the army, the church or the state, anything different invariably triggers aversion, fear, hatred.

This is not just weird; it’s catastrophic since without diversity, life cannot exist.

In every field, in every forest, in every ecosystem, hundreds-thousands-millions of different kinds of species of plants and animals are developing. More than that, every plant and animal is different from its’ relatives.

Of course chicories don’t thrive everywhere, neither could koalas survive in Greenland. However, an ecosystem that consists solely of corn and cows is doomed to extinction.

I saw by chance a picture of a snowflake. I was so impressed that I couldn’t help but search a bit more and learn about these natural chefs d’oeuvre.

The most impressive of all I read about them is that it’s almost impossible to find two identical snowflakes.

Give it some thought: out of the trillions of millions of snowflakes that fall every year, almost all of them are different. So, during the billions of years where billions of snowflakes have fallen on our planet, how many can we claim that they are exactly the same?

And yet, all of them, combined, they make up snow.

“There is no such thing as society”, Margaret Thatcher used to say.

This is just like saying: “There is no snow. Only snowflakes.”

Or “There are no humans. Only cells.”

“There is no forest. Only trees.”

(Or if you want to stretch it a bit, she’s just like saying: “There is no matter. Only atoms”.)

A snowflake by itself wouldn’t even make it to the ground; and even if it makes it, it means nothing, it doesn’t matter. It will melt before it spends the money it has siphoned off into its offshore account.

All the snowflakes are different. Not even two of them are alike. But when combined, thanks to their diversity, snow is created.

All men are different. Νot even two of them are alike. But collectively, thanks to their diversity, they make a society.

A single man, a single tree, a single snowflake, a single atom.
One equals zero. It is the second one that gives the first a meaning.

Matter consists of atoms, snow of snowflakes, a forest of trees and society of men, “dear” Thatcher.

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After that, as if a sinister internet mind meant to play games with my thoughts, I bumped into this photo which was depicting this skull.
It comes from an archaeological excavation at Faliro¹ where they found thousands of skeletons with their hands tied behind their backs.

There was a brain once in this skull and it belonged to a thinking, dreaming, fearing, hoping human being.

It was special being, different from all others. It was a Thatcherish individual.

Yet, the society that existed 2700 years ago killed it and buried it with its hands tied behind its back along with 1000 other people.

What is society? It is the living organism that people, the individuals, create.

Society consists of people. The human body consists of cells. The matter of atoms.

The snow of snowflakes.

Men are like snowflakes.

If you look everybody up close with a microscope, if you observe them, you’ll figure out that everyone is different, that there are not even two people who are exactly the same.

And yet, we’re all hexagons.
And yet, all of us, together, we make the snow.

(And all of us will melt in the springtime and turn into water which will form streams that will join the river which reaches the sea; and we will vapourize again in the summer and in the autumn we will become a cloud and finally, once again, snow).

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