THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF NATIONS

The individual’s awareness is the only salvation both for himself and his nation. Individuals who believe they can rid themselves of a condition of slavery, whether social, financial or others, through leaders, reforms or institutions, are self deceiving for the only slavery in which a man is imprisoned is that of his own mind. A nation cannot develop in its mass a nature different from that which is in the individuals because a nation is composed by its individuals, hence the facts that a nation produces are the result of the ideas of its individuals. The destiny of a nation is tied to the individual consciousness, to change its future a nation must act individually and this requires the courage to recognize one's individual responsibility as component of the unity of the national consciousness, only after that we can proceed, through careful and honest self-analysis, to see whether the ideals entertained individually are aligned with those we want to see expressed in our own community and with the goals we want to realize. If they are not, if we are seeking them yet and not already incarnating them, It means that
within that national consciousness we’re not a component productive of facts in the nature of those ideals. Only a reversal of ideals can change our destinies and those of the communities in which we live because every man, without exception, thinks from the premises of who he is, and he is his own ideas and those are forming his character and his character determines his attitudes and consequently his actions, and in this process, no government, institution or leader can intervene, it is a personal matter subject to the discretion of the person; it follows that asking governments to ensure the presence of certain ideals is utopia because governments are the expression of the individuals who form their nations, in whatever way they are formed. Ideals cannot be instilled through physical acts, ideals can only be embodied; and they cannot even die because no idea can ever die, it can only cease to be brought to life through man; we can then realize that the success or failure of a nation lies in the people and their ideas, precisely in the consciousnesses of the individuals and that's an individual power. Observe the prevalent topics of which people speak and write, or watch their prevailing work, and you will find the ideas that animate that people, their nature dictates the destiny of their nation.
If the circumstances of a nation are not satisfactory it is useless to criticize governments since they are the barometer of the  consciousnesses of the individuals that allowed them, that is not the solution, to make a change in a nation, we should study goverments as a mirror of the ideals embodied by the people they represent and then act on those ideas at an individual level so that the external reality will adapt accordingly because it is the extension of human consciousness. Blame, complaints and condemnation are not productive of change, but indicators of the lack of recognition of the need to change the self as the only possible action to erase them, and that’s an inner individual action, and this applies to every situation, both personal and social, rather they are feelings that consolidate the object or subject of criticism, complaints and condemnation. Self-help is not a matter to be dealt only for a mere personal satisfaction, it’s not a philosophy, it is not one of  several solutions but - the - solution, either in the personal sphere or greater scales up to the worldwide, because every human community is implicitly formed by individuals and the individual affect the external reality through his consciousness. Only the individual realization of one's own weight in his community allows to understand that the only action to change that community is within one’ s self and not on the outside, another way is to fight against the true nature of things, if individuals do not change, the community they express remains the same and its circumstances too.




“Nations who are thus enslaved at heart cannot be freed by any mere changes of masters or of institutions;….. The solid foundations of liberty must rest upon individual character; which is also the only sure guarantee for social security and national progress.” (Samuel Smiles)