Austin: Doctor Stockmann! I finally meet you. So how many pounds can you lift? Doctor: What are you talking about? I am a skilled medical officer, not some crazy body-builder. Austin: Am I mistaken in thinking that you said you were the strongest man in the world? Doctor: No, uh, well, yes. Journalists can never get anything right. When I said that "the strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone," I did not expect it to be interpreted literally. Individuals who stay individuals do not have bigger muscles but rather they are stronger in spirit, will, and power. The spiritual and mental faculties are more important than physical abilities. Austin: Are you suggesting individuals should kill their friends, family, and teachers, so that they can gain power? Finding a place to stand alone is difficult with us as crowded as we are already. Doctor: No! An individual need not be alone in the physical sense. Although the many citizens of the town surround me, I can happily say that I am alone, in the metaphysical sense. I do what I want to do, with no connection to others, emotionally or psychologically. The creation of a connection between society and an individual is undeniably damaging to the individual. Austin: Interesting! Are you implying that the group drains the power, the "spirit" out of the individual? Measuring this spirit of the individual must be difficult. How can one tell between a "strong" man, like you, and a man like me? Doctor: In any group, there is the nasty thing called the majority. The majority is always right; the majority is the group. The individual is irrelevant and has no rights once part of a group. The payment for joining a group is the innate power of the individual. The reason I am strong is that no one can weaken or stop me in whatever venture I pursue. I have retained my freedom. To tell the strong from the weak, one has to learn the force behind the actions. A weak person would be like a robot with others in control. The individual who thinks for himself and controls himself is stronger than any robot could ever be. No one can control us as efficiently or as well as we do ourselves. Austin: Of course, individualism is wonderful. You have a great concept, but I do not understand how a group can be weaker than an individual. People obviously formed societies for a reason. Are you saying that all our fathers were stupid in giving others their precious rights? More bodies, means more brains, which in turn means better things can be accomplished. An individual has inescapable limitations, that can be minimized once the individual becomes part of a group. How can more people be bad? Doctor: Too much of anything is bad. For example, I dare not give my patients high doses of drugs. Even though the drugs will help the patient, excessive amounts would be damaging. Nothing exists that does not have a limit before its goodness expires. More people can only weaken society. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a society's shortcomings lie in the less upstanding individuals, such as my brother. Austin: But look at what a group of people can do, that an individual cannot do! Doctor: I admit that there are advantages to groups. Without this town, the Baths would never have been built by me alone. And without me, no one would have thought up of the Baths. But the potential usefulness of me while I was in the society is greatly less than I am now. I have been freed! Austin: I understand now! Although the group together may be "stronger" than you, you are stronger than each individual that makes up a group. Interpreted in this way, your comment makes perfect sense. But how can you expect to fight the entire town? Doctor: I have a weapon that no one else has. I have my brain. My ideas and my thoughts give me something that no one in the town can match. It is with these that will allow me to be triumphant. Austin: But what good is this strength that you have, if you cannot even lift a few puny weights? Doctor: The physical aspects of life are meaningless without the moral and mental attitudes necessary for life. Internally, I am the strongest, and that is all that matters. Austin: Even though you may be the strongest man, are you not also the loneliest man in the world? Standing alone makes you an individual, it makes you strong, but it seems to have a huge price associated with it. It does not seem possible to be an individual, to permanently break the connections with society. The mayor of the town will always be your brother, and that influence will never disappear. Your strength can never be at its greatest potential, since you cannot truly stand alone. Even now, you have persuaded me to stand with you. It seems that the more that you win, the weaker you will become. Doctor: It is true that I will never be completely alone, unless I run into some unknown forest to never be seen again. There will always be someone who will be with me. It may be my wife, my brother, or you; it really does not matter. Even if I do not stand alone, I still stand by my statement. The strongest man in the world does stand alone. Austin: Bravo! You certainly have me convinced. I have one last question before you leave to stand alone. If there were two people who both stood alone, who would win when they arm wrestled each other?