24:47 Jackson: One thing that really strikes me about Kierkegaard is how much he emphasized the individual. He dedicated his works to "that single individual" and seemed to think that becoming an authentic person was fundamentally a solitary task.
25:03 Miles: Oh, this is such a crucial aspect of his thought! Kierkegaard was deeply concerned about what he saw as the leveling tendency of modern society—the way mass culture, public opinion, and social conformity were making it harder and harder for people to develop genuine individuality.
25:19 Jackson: What do you mean by "leveling"? That sounds like it could be a good thing—like equality or social justice.
25:25 Miles: Well, Kierkegaard wasn't opposed to political equality, but he was worried about a different kind of leveling—the psychological and spiritual flattening that happens when everyone starts thinking the same thoughts, wanting the same things, living according to the same external standards.
25:41 Jackson: So it's like intellectual and spiritual conformity rather than economic inequality?
4:26 Miles: Exactly! He wrote this brilliant analysis of what he called "the present age" where he contrasted it with "the age of revolution." He said revolutionary ages have passion, commitment, people willing to die for their beliefs. But the present age—his age—was characterized by reflection without action, cleverness without commitment.
26:06 Jackson: That sounds remarkably contemporary, actually. Like our age of endless commentary and analysis but difficulty making decisive choices?
11:44 Miles: Right! And Kierkegaard saw the press as a major culprit in this leveling process. He thought newspapers created what he called "the public"—this abstract entity that supposedly represents everyone but actually represents no one in particular.
26:30 Jackson: How so? I mean, doesn't the press just report on what's happening?
26:34 Miles: But think about how public opinion works. The press tells us what "everyone" is thinking, what's trending, what the conventional wisdom is. And gradually, people start conforming their own thoughts and desires to what they think everyone else thinks and desires.
26:49 Jackson: So instead of developing your own authentic response to events, you're constantly adjusting to what you think the collective response should be?
4:26 Miles: Exactly! And Kierkegaard thought this was spiritually devastating because it prevents people from developing what he called "inwardness"—that deep, personal relationship with truth that can only happen in solitude and self-examination.
27:11 Jackson: But isn't there something valuable about being part of a community, sharing common values and purposes? Kierkegaard's individualism sounds pretty lonely.
27:20 Miles: That's a fair criticism, and Kierkegaard struggled with it himself. He wasn't advocating for complete isolation or rejecting all social bonds. But he thought that genuine community could only emerge between people who had first become authentic individuals.
27:36 Jackson: So you have to know who you are before you can genuinely connect with others?
11:44 Miles: Right! Otherwise, what you think is community is really just mutual reinforcement of conformity. You're not relating to each other as unique individuals; you're relating to each other as representatives of shared social roles or identities.
27:53 Jackson: That's a pretty high bar for authentic relationship. How many people actually achieve that level of individual authenticity?
28:01 Miles: Well, that's where Kierkegaard gets really provocative. He thought very few people ever become genuine individuals. Most people live what he called "the crowd-life"—they define themselves entirely in terms of social categories, public roles, comparative achievements.
28:16 Jackson: So when he dedicated his works to "that single individual," he was writing for a very small audience?
4:26 Miles: Exactly! He once wrote that if there was just one person in each generation who truly understood what it means to be an individual, that would be enough. He wasn't trying to start a mass movement; he was trying to awaken a few people to the possibility of authentic existence.
28:38 Jackson: But doesn't that seem kind of elitist? Like he's writing off most of humanity as incapable of genuine selfhood?
28:46 Miles: I think it's more that he saw individuality as incredibly difficult and demanding. It requires constant self-examination, the willingness to stand alone against social pressure, the courage to make choices that can't be justified by appeal to what everyone else is doing.
29:02 Jackson: And presumably it requires dealing with all that anxiety we talked about earlier—the anxiety of freedom, of choice, of responsibility?
2:59 Miles: Absolutely! The crowd offers comfort precisely because it relieves you of the burden of individual choice. If you're just doing what everyone else does, you don't have to take full responsibility for your life. But genuine individuality means accepting that burden.
29:27 Jackson: So there's a trade-off between authenticity and comfort?
29:31 Miles: That's how Kierkegaard saw it. And he thought most people, understandably, choose comfort. They'd rather live in what he called "spiritlessness"—going through the motions of social existence without ever really confronting the question of who they are and what they're living for.
29:47 Jackson: But for those who do choose the harder path of individuality, what do they gain? Is it worth the isolation and anxiety?
29:54 Miles: Well, Kierkegaard would say they gain the possibility of genuine existence, authentic selfhood, real relationship with God. They become who they actually are rather than just playing social roles. But yeah, it comes at a cost.