Good point. Rousseau's "general will" of the people did precisely view "the people" as an abstraction, almost like a force of nature. And while their "will" was supposed to reign supreme, he made it clear that it was entirely possible for individuals to be alienated from knowing their true will, in which case the ruler would have to act in their true interest, even against their will.
"The people", for Rousseau, was a philosophical concept, not any living person or collection of people necessarily.
This is very different from Locke and Jefferson, for whom the people were, as you say, flesh and blood individual people.
Interesting that the attack on Jefferson is growing in intensity and is moving down into the school system. He would have been one of the most moral practical men of his day when it was the fashion to be moral and practical, and for that reason alone would have to be destroyed now if the idea of America is to be deconstructed. We will have to gear up if we expect to counter.
Thank you, oh so very much, dear marron, for this excellent, succinct description of the doctrine of the "General Will!"
It is a free ticket to ride for any ambitious, would-be tyrant, a complete justification for tyranny.