Many of our concepts—from time to chemical bonds to genes to species—lack stable definitions but remain helpful categories to think with. Individuality is another such category, and it certainly does useful work for us. But it evidently leads us into trouble. Our individualism shapes the way we form connections with each other and affects the distribution of resources and responsibilities. By imagining ourselves as neatly separable—from one another and the ecosystems that sustain us—we are able to justify both the exploitation and oppression of other humans, and ecological devastation.

-Merlin Sheldrake