Others serve the ego only as way stations toward the self

Evidence

All relations with others are thus ultimately mere stations along the road by which the ego arrives at its self. This is true whether the ego feels itself to be basically identical to these others because it still needs this supporting conviction as it stands alone upon itself and its own powers, or whether it is strong enough to bear the loneliness of its own quality, the multitude being there only so that each individual can use the others as a measure of his incomparability and the individuality of his world. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 537

Categorization

• XREF: This instrumentalized relation to others closely parallels Julius’s flâneur stance in the essay — the crowd as measure of one’s own incomparability rather than as genuine human connection. — connects to: The Antillean’s self-worth is entirely contingent on comparison with others — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 753; the MOC “The Self That Stumbles: Ego, Pride, and the Recognition Economy”