Forced unification into large structures intensifies differentiation and repulsion among parts.

Evidence

When elements that are already differentiated or that press toward differentiation are forced into an embracing union, the outcome, more often than not, is an increased incompatibility, a more intense mutual repulsion. The large, embracing framework, which naturally requires differentiation, on the one hand, in order to exist at all, causes a friction of elements against one another, on the other hand, an actualization of antitheses that would not have come to pass except for this crowding. Unification into a great amalgam is the means—even if a transient one—to individualization and to its emergence in consciousness. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 660

Categorization

• XREF: This crowding-toward-differentiation mechanism parallels how urban density in the blasé attitude produces both individuation and detachment — key support for the essay’s causal chain. — connects to: Conflict destructive at one level can integrate the larger group — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 280; Colonial partition entrenched fragmentation that would later generate friction; Hegemony is an unstable equilibrium requiring continuous re-securing. (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely counterintuitive, dense claim: the instrument of a great whole’s own destruction is the individuation it creates. Ranks in the top tier of passages for sitting with.

Related

• Each mode of production is driven forward by overcoming its own contradictions (similarity 0.88)
• Conflict destructive at one level can integrate the larger group (similarity 0.86)
• Irreconcilable conflict gives society its texture, durability, and resilience (similarity 0.81)
• Societies require a mix of discord and harmony to take determinate shape (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Conflict destructive at one level can integrate the larger group #complicates (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 280
• Colonial partition entrenched fragmentation that would later generate friction #exemplifies (0.55)