There’s much to be said about the importance of self-reliance. The idea of working hard and providing for ourselves has been a tenet of American society for as long as I’ve been alive, and probably way before that. There are, of course, notable exceptions to this. Many of us “collectivize” when it comes to things like family, friends — or even country, though there are forces at play that seek to divide us for their own gain. “Our” family. “Our” relationship.

This compartmentalization in our minds ultimately separates things into “boxes.” “My” achievements. “My” goals. “My” hard work. “My” success. Rarely, if ever, do we consider the historical and societal foundations that make it all possible. To battle its enemies in the prehistoric world, as best we can tell, early mankind had to form language. “Yo, Bob, Joey, James, and Patty, let’s circle Mr. Snuffleupagus here and get it with the spears so we can eat tonight.” We needed spears. We needed fire. Then somewhere along the line we developed writing, and math, and all the things that laid the foundation for our modern comforts like electricity, air conditioning, so on and so forth. Look at our field. Had Ward Stone Ireland not created early machine shorthand, would Stenograph exist today? But none of this was done completely alone. Had no one adopted his silly little machine, or had people rejected math and writing, where would we be?

No one can take your personal accomplishments away from you. But when was the last time you thought about what the world would really look like in a reality where humans were solitary animals? We have been conditioned through mass media and societal norms of our age to think largely in terms of the self. Products of our time. This is especially true in court reporting, where, like it or not, a great deal of our work is solitary. Two lawyers at a deposition can appreciate that they are both lawyers with clients whose interests they must protect. Two court reporters at a deposition means someone screwed up and now one of them might be going home with little to no money.

I worked as a freelancer. I worked at the district attorney’s office. Now I work in a courthouse. I spent years in silence, then I spent years telling the world what I thought through this blog and connecting with all of you. I have experienced the gamut of unity and expression in this field. And it is easy to forget that these experiences were reliant on so many who came before me.

The 1,000-person network I brag about from time to time? I would not have it if I had not met Mary Ann Payonk as a young reporter and if she had not introduced me to so many of you. The many people I’ve met through NYSCRA and NCRA, I would not have met had reporters of the past not envisioned and started these associations. When Superstorm Sandy rocked my life, there was a group of court reporters, including Anthony Frisolone, that banded together to buy my family some supplies and bring my family clothes. There are many I’m omitting here, but the point must be clear. “My” success, who “I” am today, is a product of our collective contributions to each other. The benefits of a sense of esprit de corps are palpable.

Yet there is one area of life where we seem especially conditioned toward individualism. Our negotiations with our “employers.” I saw it online the other day. Someone said of the court system, “if you are a good employee, you don’t need union protection.” Oh? I was a good employee for over half a decade. As soon as I had a bit of medical trouble, I needed union protection. Agencies? “Tell them your rates! If they don’t accept them, don’t work for them!” Easy to say, but really hard to do when you’re wondering where your next meal will come from if you don’t land some steady work soon. Want to eat? You’re going to take the deal. Ask me how I know. We were segregated quite easily into realtime and not realtime where, even now, it’s used as both a carrot and stick. “You’re not realtime? Well that’s your problem! If you were realtime, you’d be making lots of money like me.” Ignoring the economic fact that once everyone is realtime it’s no longer a specialized skill and no longer worth half as much as it is today.

This individualism, curiously, doesn’t seem to apply to the upper echelons of large corporations. They want the market to roll a certain way? They literally work together to rig it while we all sit there twiddling our thumbs going “you can’t discuss rates!” I’ve been told that in Texas there’s a group of agency owners keeping a list of reporters whose rates are too high. Though an unsubstantiated rumor, that would be an illegal group boycott. When we stand up for ourselves, agencies collectively denigrate us as resistant to change or old school. And the realtime thing? Wouldn’t you know it, the powers that be collectively decided digital is realtime, because that’s what benefits them. “But they pay my rates!” Okay. How long do you think that lasts against the shared goal of the agencies to keep costs — your rates — down? They pay your rates to keep you in line and on their side because they know the realtimers are an economic powerhouse and that if merely one hundred of you put together a funding package for this blog I’d vaporize them. And they know that because they all talk to each other. They understand esprit de corps.

We can look at other occupations for how powerful this mindset really is. Members of the military take on combat scenarios most of us couldn’t dream of participating in. Police protect the streets from all manner of danger. Firefighters are willing to charge into burning buildings with each other to rescue people. I would argue, my friends, that fellowship makes humans damn near superhuman. Ever watch the credits of a movie or video game and contemplate how these large teams of people are coming together to create something wonderful? Yes, there are individual roles. But they are working toward a common objective.

Of course, there are those among us that would use the message of togetherness to consolidate their own power. History’s littered with examples. Fiction is too. It is perhaps engrained in our psyche that there are dangers and pitfalls to “unity.” How many of us have been made to feel like a useful idiot after our leaders were done with us? This is, after all, how gangs turn children into soldiers. There is a dark side even I cannot ignore.

I have made the case for open mindedness when it comes to a larger sense of unity. When we ostracize, deride, and derogate the accomplishments of others, we are not honoring the roots of the society that gave us life. Our ancestors had knowledge many of us have long forgotten. But we can see, even in individualistic modern society, how beneficial collective actions are. Will we acknowledge that benefit? Will we heed the call to combine into missions greater than ourselves?

One can hope. Many could accomplish.