In such an overwhelming portion of human tragedy, we find that one form of collectivism or another is essentially the prevailing zeitgeist which serves as the justification behind these horrors. From the Soviet gulag to the Nazi gas chamber, from the KKK lynching to the wars of nationalism, we find that a variant of collectivist thought was the cognitive framework for both the people in power as well as the populace who allowed it to happen. It is the same drive behind the terrorist who commits suicide to murder others. The drive is for the "collective good." It is for the "glory of our nation." It can be the "greatness of the Fatherland", the "preservation of our race", or even "the posterity of our republic." Each time human beings forget the rights of the individual - each time they reject the inescapable truth that each human being is unique and has a will of their own - we sacrifice the dignity of the human condition for the irrational, grandiose designs for either those in power or those whom we perceive to be worthy of our allegiance. I urge each and every one of you to always remember this: you are the master of your life and the master of no one else. Even the slave or the prisoner of war has some degree of choice in their actions. Human beings have set themselves on fire to protest the actions of a tyrannical government. Human beings have sat down in the street while a tank is about to run them over in defiance of tyranny. Human beings have demonstrated their will even against their own survival instinct. It is from this truism that we must reject all forms of coercive collectivism: racism, nationalism, communism, socialism, fascism, ethnocentrism, sexism, chauvinism, ageism, and the list goes on.