The basic depravity of our times is that personality has been abolished. No one in our time dares to be a personality, everyone shrinks in cowardly anthrophobia from being I over against, perhaps in opposition, to others. Then the politicians avail themselves of the public. The politician is no I – good gracious no, he speaks in the public’s name. Religiously, ‘the Church’ is used in just the same way. What people want is an appropriate abstraction which helps them avoid being I, which is surely the greatest danger of all.

The Journals (1855)

I have to find the source of the quote! Maybe I should start a new category “Find Quote”?! Anyway, well said SK!