Collective Effervescence, Individuality, and cycles.
While reading and thinking about Durkheim, and his views on what he calls Collective Effervescence, I was thinking about how you could use this theory and apply it to the 2008 election with Barack Obama.
Individualism is a byproduct of society, because without knowing of society, then the individual does not know he is an individual, you must have other individuals to compare too and relate to in order to understand and appreciate your own individuality.
And Individuality is also formed by using others as your examples of what not to do and what to do, which creates a unique person because each situation in which you see or use an individual to express your own self is unique and different. And because other people are using you for their examples then you can say that no one individual can create, control, or even greatly influence society. Look at a transcendental person like Obama. He may be able to sway millions, but remember that those millions were not swayed by him as much as the millions that Obama was influenced by in his life. Society is in fact a great circle that continuously feeds off itself and renews itself.