[MD] Roots of Individualism

[John Carl]

Individualism is a pretty popular idea around here (usa) so it gets assumed
a lot.  But I'd like to look at it a little deeper than usual.

First, of course, comes analysis of its metaphysical underpinnings and here
Royce is helpful in pointing out what should be painfully obvious, that the
individual is socially defined and created.

But even more interestingly pertinent, is how Royce points out that the
highest value of the community, ought to be in the creation of quality
individuals and the highest value of the individual, must be the creation of
a quality community.

The one great common mistake  individuals make, especially Randian
individuals, is valuing the needs of  individualism over and against the
needs the community.

Now as I say, this idea is actually pretty popular in America, and I have a
theory as to why.

Cultural influences, of course.  I don't blame Ayn Rand for Individualism,
she's just an intellectual, after all.  Doing what intellectuals do best.
Coming in and analyzing intellectually what everybody has already
assimilated through the arts.  Figuring out later, where to draw the lines
and encapsulate the knowing.

But the individualism itself arose through the artistic impulses of a
newly-industrialized people.  A new system developed where a man's
individual worth became meaningless since all we need from him is the
ability to be a widget maker in a factory.  This development, while useful
for building a prosperous society, has an inherent biological danger in
store for a species, of obviating the mechanism which got us here - natural
selection.

"Survival of the fittest" loses all its oomph when fitness becomes a fashion
statement more than a criterion for survival.

And thus a barely-felt need by the populace at large, for the heroic
exaltation of individual excellence.  That's just the dna pleading for some
help here.

Thus the heroic exaltation of Shane - riding into town, then riding out
again.  The rebel without a cause, sneering at social traps.  The free
wheeling poet, on the road and on the screen.

The big trouble with this impulse, is that its so easily manipulated.
Remember, individuals are created by the community-at-large.  When this
process gets turned over completely to the industrialized society, you can
expect a warpage to occur.  You can expect a model for individuals to evolve
that isolates and weakens people and community, for it is in the weakness of
the small that the Giant gains strength.

And when EVERYBODY is fiercely individualistic, together they comprise one
vast and easily manipulated collective.  Thus emphasizing individualism,
actually weakens individuals.  Becomes weak through the degeneracy that all
self-worship eventually entails.

The irony of course, is that by standing up against the collective impulse
of society, I'm actually making a pretty good argument for the worth of an
individual perspective, over and against the collective wisdom.

Oh well.  I like irony.  That's just me.