I wonder how many of you are aware that ego can be not only individual but also collective. Just as individuals have ego, so do social collectives and even social systems. The former range from nations, stats and companies to communities and clubs. The latter include, for example, languages. Yes, languages also have collective ego, which is known as normative grammar.
The characteristic these two types of ego have in common is that they are meant to protect themselves, which are nothing but illusions. For this purpose of protecting their illusory self they have to keep maintaining the illusion that they are separate beings from others.
Let's take societies at the national level. Culture in the wide sense of the word is a collection of rules of collective ego. These rules are not codified, but are transmitted as sociocultural norms and common senses, first through families, then through communities, and finally through formal education, and we are brainwashed unconsciously little by little.
At least according to my own experiences, about 70 or 80 percent of the members of every social collective unconsciously follow the rules dictated by its collective ego. In other words, these people continue living by blindly following what their collective considers right. And they in tern become propaganda tools for brainwashing new members of this collective.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I experienced being ostracized as a result of my resistance to the pressure of the collective ego of the junior high school I attended. Thanks to this primordial experience in my mid-teens, I've come to instinctively reject what I perceive as collective ego. This way I've repeatedly left many of the social collectives I belonged to or was forced to belong to. The most recent resistance of mine is to quit my permanent position in academia in order to liberate myself from its collective ego.
Let me elaborate upon the main purpose of any collective ego - maintaining the continued existence of the social collective it serves. It attacks mercilessly any member or any other social collective that threatens this continued existence, which is again nothing but an illusion. One of the most typical non-physical attacks is ostracizing. But if this and other non-physical measures don't work, certain members won't hesitate to physically attack those who threaten their social collective. In rather simplistic terms, this must the ultimate cause for international and other conflicts between social collectives.
Living by following what the collective ego of any social collective we belong to or are forced to belong to have the advantage of leading a non-turbulent life and we may also enjoy the additional benefit of winning the rat race. But I seriously doubt whether such life will lead to the fulfillment of our true life purpose, which is spiritual growth.
It may not be so realistic to revolt against collective ego, but we can step aside from what it dictates to us and gradually shift to life that will contribute to our spiritual growth.