Akira The Don, Joseph Campbell - The Individual lyrics

Now the third function of
A mythological tradition is to validate
And maintain a certain moral order
Now these moral orders greatly differ
From one society to another
For example the requirements
Of a primitive hunting community
Are very, very different
From a primitive planting community
What is required of the young men and women
Is in each case quite different
Likewise, in a complex society
Of differentiated
Tasks with professional
Doctors, Medicines, Medical men astronomers
Or scientists governing people
Trading people
All of these coordinated in one society
We have a quite different social problem
Quite different moral problem
From that of a simple primitive community

The individual must be shaped
He must be made to react
In the way that that culture wants (it to)
The individual must be shaped (oh)
He must be made to react (oh)
In the way that that culture wants (it to)

And so there is this variation
From society to society
In terms of the social orders
Now some of these social orders
Are extremely ruthless and fierce in their
Requirements and extremely narrow
In their demand individuals may be
Thus divorced separated
So to say from their own nature

Read some of the descriptions
In the anthropological works
Of the primitive initiation rites
What is done to the young people
In some primitive societies
In order to
Test their courage
In order to integrate them
In the social group now most societies
Are extremely dogmatic
And fierce in their
Integration of the individual
The individual is born as a separate entity
He is carved up so to say
And made to fit into a pattern
That the society requires
It doesn’t require a total man
It requires a "part man" not an individual
But a "dividuum"
Someone who has been divided up
And put into a notch

The individual must be shaped
He must be made to react
In the way that that culture wants (it to)
The individual must be shaped (oh)
He must be made to react (oh)
In the way that that culture wants (it to)

This happens in the most primitive societies
Already nature produces
This wonderfully rich being
Full of possibilities
The society and you cannot blame society
It requires a certain
Specific - Limited - Type
It’s got to have that
Otherwise it can’t exist and so
The individual is so to say
Carved into shape scarified
And teeth knocked out his body is changed
So that he will know
I’m a member of this group not that group

The individual must be shaped
He must be made to react
In the way that that culture wants
(wants it to)
The individual must be shaped (oh)
He must be made to react (oh)
In the way that that culture wants
(wants it to)

The individual must be changed
He must be made to react
In the way that that culture wants it to
The individual must be changed (oh)
He must be made to react (oh)
In the way that that culture wants it to

And in so
Shaping the person the person is removed
So to say from his own nature
From his own nature from his own nature
His own nature