I believe that life (my definition of which includes most everything in existence) has a process inherent in it's design that allows it to group up and disperse as necesary. It just so happened that our ancestors lived in an environment where they couldn't survive without working together, therefore our societies are based on this notion. Other animals live in even more tightly knit collectives (ants, bees, bacteria) which don't allow them individuality of any sort. Being that humans have free will (at least in comparison to all other animals) we can converge or disperse as we please, particularly in today's world where you can potentially work and sustain yourself with minimal human contact. Because of this I feel we are more free than the quote suggests, yes it touches on the necessities of societal living but as our ability grows so does our ability to sustain ourselves free of civilization. Eventually it could come to be that a human could live a whole, productive life without ever coming into contact with another human, even from birth. I'm not going to be so presumptuous as to say this is a good thing but it will be possible assuming society continues working together
