cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

Norway's separation from Denmark, and the Norwegians' opposition to any kind of
amalgamation with Sweden, one has asked whether the conclusion of the same principle
could not lead, for example, to the northern mountain region of Norway separating itself
from the southern mountain region. It cannot be denied that Trondheimers have much,
both in predispositions and customs, which separates them from the people of the
southern mountain region, just as also climatic and other circumstances to some extent
seem to indicate separate interests. The aforementioned tendency towards independence
would also really be something to be feared, as destructive of everything, as if in world
history everything at last separated into meaningless atoms--if it were not accompanied by
a tendency in the opposite direction, which has the effect of creating continually larger
and larger unities, and shows itself superior to the former [tendency] precisely in that it
walks in its footsteps and makes use of its results for its greater goals. This merging,
uniting principle is world history's actual nisus organicus, which is actually one with the
foregoing and only its positive side. The dissimilar must be separated, in order for the
similar to be united; the compulsory conglomeration, held together by outer bonds, must
be split asunder in order to make a place for a free association, determined by inner
reasons. Freedom and independence consist only by submission under a general law of
society; without this they are unreal abstractions. The individual cannot be free and
independent unless there are citizens in a state, and the state itself cannot be independent
except as a link in a larger whole.
This is not empty philosophizing; one inquires about the history of only the most
recent times, to see if a recognizable striving to create larger societies has not followed on
the heels of the disorganization. Or much more: the uniting, organizing tendency has
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