the sovereign individual

I enjoy using the imagery of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception (https://www.amazon.com/Doors-Perception-Heaven-Hell/dp/0061729078?tag=plantimals-20) line describing every human group as a “society of island universes”. that image strikes at the root of my conception of the individual. in a very real sense, we all have a unique window on the universe from our individual perspective which can never be shared and no other person can cause our body to act. I refer to this as absolute individual sovereignty. sovereignty because we have the power to act in whatever way occurs to us to act, and absolute in that no other entity can ever come between us and our actions. there may well be consequences to our actions, and other entities can use threats, violence, or other tactics in an attempt to influence us, but ultimately it is our will that determines our actions. I made a similar point when describing my thoughts on attention (https://plantimals.org/posts/attention/):