The liberty of individual is no gift of civilization. It was unlimited before there was any civilization, though then, it’s true it had for the most part no value. Since then individual was scarcely in a position to defend it. The development of civilization imposes restrictions on it and justice demands that no one shall escape those restrictions. What makes itself felt in a human community as a desire for freedom may be their revolt against some existing injustice and so many prove favorable to a further development of civilization it may remain compatible with civilization. But it may also spring from the remaining of their original personality which is still unlawed by civilization.
The urge for freedom, therefore, is directed against particular forms and demands of civilization or against civilization all together. It does not seem as though any influence could induce a man to change his nature into termites. No doubt he will always defend his claim to individual liberty against the will of the group. A good part of the struggles of mankind centers round the single task of finding and expedient accommodation one, that is, that will bring happiness-between this claim of the individual and the cultural claims of the groups and one of the problems that touches the fate of humanity is windier met an accommodation can be reached by means of some particular form of civilization or whether this conflict is irreconcilable.
