Sticking Together

I was watching a show on Animal Planet yesterday about lions and their hunting techniques and something jumped out at me about this one.  Lions hunt as a whole, not as an individual, and in one scene  the lion pride was trying single out a buffalo to prey upon.  Then the deep narrator's voice came in and said that the buffalo travel everywhere together because their numbers are their only defense against the lions.  SoI thought it was funny that the Puritans and buffalo alike both turn to community in a time of need.  Also, when a calf is born, the buffalo herd keeps the calf close to the middle so it will be safer from lions and other prey.  Puritans do quite a similar thing with their children and their lives too by having such strict rules against sinning.  By not letting anyone sin or individualize themselves Puritans pushed all of their people to the middle and into a community as a form of defense against the rest of the world.  

I think the Puritans had the right idea; a community is a very effective way for a secular group of people to stay alive in general, but when the word individualism does not exist is when it has gotten too far.  People need to be together in our world to stay alive, but people also need to be themselves and make their own mistakes and glories.  Like I said, I do think community is a great thing to turn to in a perilous time, but it is the way one goes about getting there that can be flawed.