In countless variations, historical reality has conformed to the same pattern. The medieval knight combined his ethos of purely individual authenticity and worth with a firm, cosmopolitan bent. His self-reliance made room for the forms that produced a European knighthood transcending all national boundaries.

XREF: Tension between individualism and cosmopolitan institutions recurs in discussions of modern networks versus nation-state structures.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 659