“In collectivistic cultures the collective is
responsible for the wrongdoing of one of its members; in individualistic
cultures, it is solely the individual who is responsible.” (Triandis, Harry C. 1995, Individualism
and Collectivism. Boulder: Westview Press, 78).
Can there really be such a thing as true
individualism and true collectivism when humanity is social by nature and yet
an individual at the same time? Are we not two realities bound together into
one being?
Franklin Mcguire, a
legal grad student in a Washington DC college, has finally found his calling.
No more classes. No papers. No tests. No thesis this or thesis that. No more court
case analysis. One Saturday night pretty much on a whim with a girl he met at
the Lucky Bar in North West, he found his calling with a group he was
introduced to that night. The two of them took an Uber to a warehouse near the
rail yards of North East. Franklin wasn’t particularly religious despite
growing up in a pretty traditionally faith oriented family that went to Church
every Sunday. But this was unlike any Church he ever experienced. First it was
located in North East near the rail yard in a warehouse. Second there was lively
music, there was dancing, and there was drinking. It was like a rave. “How is
this Church?” he thought to himself.
Then some old guy
got up on the stage, the music stopped, the dancing stopped.
“Welcome. Welcome to
the Church of the Independent.”
“Here we will never
judge you.”
“You are totally
free. Free to be yourself.”
“Free to believe in
whatever, and do whatever.”
“We only ask three
things of you- Time, Talent, and Treasure to help support the cause.”
“Other than that
enjoy tonight’s festivities.”
With that the music,
dancing and drinking continued.
And with that night,
Franklin was hooked. He found his people, his way, his mission in life. He
exchanged phone numbers and emails with some of the organizers.
He dropped out of
his classes and began to help with the ministry efforts of the group much to
the chagrin of his roommate, Cadi Maddex.
Cadi Maddex was a
fellow grad student attending the same college but in the Accounting program.
She could care less if Franklin was going to ruin his life with this Church
nonsense. Mostly upon Franklin’s father’s advice, Cadi and Franklin had gone in
together on this rent-to-own property as an investment shortly after graduating
from undergraduate school. Cadi was paying her own way and Franklin’s rich
father was covering for him. Cadi really liked the place and its location, the
value of the property had already appreciated significantly in the short time
they were there, and it was expected to go up more with some new developments
going into the tiny neighborhood.
A couple of days
before the January 21st Women’s March, Franklin and several of his
fellow Church members came over to the apartment for a spontaneous
organizational get together.
“Franklin, what is
this?” Cadi asked with her hands pointing to the gaggle of half a dozen people.
She had no idea who they were, and now they were sitting in the living room opening
a box filled with pink pussyhats.
“We are prepping for
the upcoming Women’s March. Aren’t you coming?”
“Are you kidding? I
have way too much to prepare for my classes that are starting, and besides I
actually have to work that day.”
“You should really
come. I mean it is all about women.”
“Okay, there is way
more about women then just marching down some street and wearing some piece of
pink knitted headgear.”
“Oh don’t be that
way. It will be a lot of fun. A whole bunch of people expressing their rights
and freedoms.”
“Look I am all for
freedom of speech, and you can go out in potentially freezing cold weather all
you want. But for me, I am going to actually try to improve myself and continue
with my studies.” And with that Cadi turned in a huff and went to her room.
Franklin returned to
the men and women who were going through the box of pussyhats and other
various items that were on the bottom of the box.
The day of the march
Franklin and the others first gathered at the Church. Then they made their way
where the main march was assembled near 3rd and 4th on Independence facing NW
finally ending up somewhere along Madison NW and 3rd SW.
Franklin had an
incredible day. He listened to Madonna, he wore a pink pussy hat in solidarity,
and recalled his undergraduate class in Women’s Legal History and the paper he
wrote on the division between the two camps of suffragists. But this time he
saw no division, and only saw unity of a mass group of womanhood.
He turned to the
girl he met at the bar that first night and said, “Thank-you for bringing me to
this.”
Later that night,
Franklin returned to the apartment and upon seeing Cadi who happened to be up
binge watching some Game of Thrones, said “You should have really been at the
march.”
“Shhhh.” She said
trying to wave him off.
“You missed out on
some really powerful speeches on women’s rights. It was total women unity.”
At which point Cadi
pressed the paused button on the remote, and stood up.
“Are you kidding
me?!! Not every woman was allowed to be there!”
“What do you mean?”
“The event was a
Total Pro-Choice Feminist Event!”
“So, isn’t that what
women want?”
“Not all women.
There are some who actually want families, health care for having children with
disabilities, and the ability not to be short changed by society because you
just happen to be a mom.”
“What are you
talking about? It wasn’t like that. It was all about women’s issues. There were
lots of signs about lots of different women’s issues.”
“Except, you
couldn’t go if you were against abortion. That is what the website said.”
“That is just a bunch
of nonsense and fake news. I am going to bed.”
“Whatever.” Cadi
said setting down, and unpausing the show.
It would be a week
later or so, on a Saturday, Cadi came out of her room to go to the kitchen to
get a glass of water when to her shock and amazement, there was Franklin
standing in the nude as he came out of the bathroom apparently from just taking
a shower.
“Hey Cadi.” He said
rather casually.
“Uh, haven’t you
heard of a towel or a bathrobe?!!” She said covering her eyes from his nude
form which really wasn’t that half bad.
“Nah, I already used
the towel to buff off in the bathroom. It is just easier this way.” As he said
while he strolled to his room.
It would be a month
later after a few more nude incidents, a few more random spontaneous Church
gatherings from topics dealing with women’s rights for abortion, same sex
bathrooms for transgenders, to some protest in front of the White House about
the Tahoe stonefly.
There was once a gathering about doing some sort of early
1900s anarchist style protest, but lucky for Cadi they couldn’t come up with
how to make the C4 in the kitchen due to a lack of ingredients, funds and cooking
pots. They even asked if they could borrow the cash for the supplies, to which
she flatly said no. That is when things would come to a boiling point for Cadi.
“What the heck is
this?!” Cadi said pointing sternly at a wooden crate filled with dirt, some
lamps attached to it, and a mess of electrical extension cords running about
the living room.
“Well one of the
Church members went to one of the marijuana gatherings, and got some seeds. So
I am going to grow some for the cause.”
“We are not growing
marijuana in our apartment!”
“Oh come on Cadi. It
is for a good cause.”
“Look I have put up
with this Church thing for a good while now. But this is getting silly. Freedom
is not about do anything you want, any time you want. It never was about that.
There are rules to society, and always have been. And these rules are there for
a reason, and very good reasons. These rules form the sense of responsibility
we all are to have internalized. It gives each person that sense of not doing
harm to oneself, and others through one’s actions. It’s called conscience, you
should try it sometime.” Cadi said in a very forceful and a stern manner.
“Wow you sound like
what the old man says about those who will stifle our creativity. Our freedoms.
The old man says the individual is the originator of creativity and created
things, and those who live by social rules are parasites. You should be
responsible for your own actions through your creation of individual action. If
you cause harm, then it’s your fault and no one’s else’s and no one else should
be punished through some group law or attempt to curb the behavior for your
fault.” Franklin said fiddling with his setup.
“Look, I have a
major paper to write, and I do not have time to get into a philosophical
argument on individualism versus collectivism right now. But I think this
Church and old guy has you totally brainwashed.” With that Cadi quickly pivoted
around as her hair spun about and she quickly walked back to her room.
As Cadi sat at her
Google Chromebook she thought more about her situation with Franklin than her
paper. Things had really reached a point that she couldn’t stand it anymore.
She could just ignore the whole thing and stay in her room pretty much all the
time, but then she is going to end up living with a crazy man when the Rent-to-Own
agreement reached the point when they owned the place. She was now really
regretting this decision to get into this Real Estate deal in the first place.
It made so much sense originally when both of them were starting off, but now
that Franklin was involved with this funk-ass Church and dropped out of college
he seemed more like the parasite. She had known Franklin since undergrad when
they lived in the Co-Ed Dorms on Campus. He was a totally different kind of guy
then, totally into education, career, politics, and becoming a lawyer to do
social justice. Now he had become what Cadi’s father would call a “A damn
free-loading hippie”. Cadi grew up in a blue collar family in the Rust Belt,
and her father was much older than most. But she grew up with a strong sense of
traditional values and knew what this Church was spouting off was just a bunch
of nonsense. It came to her that the only way out of this situation was to take
a big risk and buy out Franklin’s father’s share of the agreement. This would
require her to restructure her educational loans privately to see if she could
leverage the debt a bit to include the property. She quickly Googled the
current loan rates and did some rough math in her head concerning her own
budget. It could work she figured if she really cut back on a few things here
and there. If the bank gave her a half a point lower than current going rate,
than even better she thought optimistically checking her credit score on Credit
Karma.
It would be about a
month and a half for Cadi to secure the needed funding from a loan to buy out
Franklin’s father and restructure the Rent-to-Own agreement all without
Franklin’s knowledge. Meanwhile Cadi pouring herself into her studies and
staying in her room simply put up with Franklin’s bizarre spontaneous Church
gatherings, his pot indoor farm experiment which went south on him because he
couldn’t get the water pump to work right, and him walking nude about the
apartment.
When the time came
for Franklin to move out, Cadi basically stayed in her room that day.
Franklin’s father was the one who came with a moving crew to help him move.
Franklin wasn’t really depressed about the whole thing, because his father
found him another place in North East DC to live, where Franklin and his Church
group could meet. Only once they had finished moving everything out did
Franklin’s father knock and enter Cadi’s room to give her the key back to the
place. Cadi simply sat in her swivel chair at her desk and took the key from
the well-dressed man’s hand. And that was it, it was done. Franklin was out of
her life. And she now was going to have the place to herself finally.
After sometime, she
exited her room. Looked about how much furniture was now missing, and she
looked in what was Franklin’s room which was totally barren of presence.
A certain hollowness
entered her. She felt the loss of Franklin looking about at the emptiness of
the place. Sure he had become a big jerk with this Church stuff, but still now
there was not just a physical void but also an emotional void present. She was
a bit scared about the whole decision she just made. She had crunched the
numbers three times and she could afford the place, but even so the emptiness
of the place made her wonder if she should try to find someone to sub-let.
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