Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8568747" data-attributes="member: 58172">There is only one metric: group versus individual. Thats it. Not nine metrics unhelpfully confused under one label. When the metric gets used, it means something.There is such a thing as "the last of ones kind", but it is unsustainable. By definition, the group ends with that individual.If there is a solitary individual with the Lawful alignment, that alignment is meaningful and conveys information. That person is a group. Perhaps one day that one does run into someone else who is also a member of that group.Chaotic people want to be oneself. They want other people to be their selves. They seek companionship, but not conformity.No, thats not it. It isnt about coercion versus noncoercion. It is about group versus individual.Lawful is about identifying oneself as a group. If group succeeds, the member feels the success, and if the group suffers scandal the member can feel  extreme pain. The sense of self - who one is - is wider. As long as the group survives, the member is in some sense alive. The group can be a family, clan or tribe, a place or nation, the community of a sacred tradition, a gender. Any group that deeply defines ones identity.Yes. A Lawful person can happen to be away from the group that defines that person, but the person feels the loss, like they left their arm or leg back there.The Chaotic person can be social and cooperate, as long as it is on that persons terms, and that person has enough space to be oneself. The Chaotic person cares about other people, but not about being other people. The Chaotic is person is a nonconformist. It is statistically less likely that the Chaotic will happen to want to do something that an entire group is pressuring, obligating, and coercing to do. Indeed, that kind of pressure is often off putting, even if the Chaotic did want to do it.When dealing with a Chaotic, one must respect the agency of that person. When dealing with a Lawful, one must respect the group of that person.Of course, most humans are mix of group identity and individual identity. Hence D&D humans tend to be Neutral. But there are groups and individuals who lean toward one of the extremes.Not sure if the following is accurate animal science but: dogs feel Lawful, as each one is ones pack, and cats feel Chaotic, as each one does ones own thing together.I do what I need to do, can be why Lawful person conforms and why a Chaotic person nonconforms. The self-identity is a need.Yeah, "Youd do the same for me", can be two Chaotics supporting each others differences, or two Lawfuls sharing each others same identity.The rules themselves can be Chaotic, like Freedom of Speech. Each individual has a right to spesk ones own mind.A Chaotic individual can be - and often is - consistent. But is nonconformist.</blockquote>

Verification