irateplatypus

Individualism is the mark of our times. At no other point in history has such power been given and assumed by the individual.

What has come of this? Today people often have the idea that truth can be discovered by individual effort, sometimes going to the extent that they believe an individual can determine their own truth (as in, all truth is subjective and relative to individual interpretation). Whether we verbalize it or not, many of us live our lives in ways that illustrate a belief that we owe little to our families, tradition, country, culture and religion.

It's empowering to possess this worldview. What could be better than complete independence for each and every person from all ties? As strange as it seems, there are some in the world who can think of nothing more destructive.

Phrases such as: "I believe some things about X religion, but choose to discard others", "It's my body so I should be able to choose what to do with it", "It's my life, you cannot tell me how to live it" and "It may be true for you, but I do not believe it is true for me" are representative of concepts that people of other cultures consider entirely foreign.

So what do you think about the paradigm for our brave new world? There are certainly benefits to it... surely there must be negative aspects also.

In our day and age, it is perfectly normal for the individual to refuse to cede any control to outside forces when the choice is present. When we assume our minds and thoughts to be the final word in our life choices, what do we sacrifice? Are we happier? Is life more fulfilling?

For issues concerning the holy grail of individual choice in our postmodern world, i can think of no more exemplary group of people than our beloved TFP.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Dragonlich

That's the "Western" worldview. Islam, Orthodoxy (to an extend), African culture, Chinese/Japanese culture... they're all more interested in the group as a whole.

In the end, there must always be a balance between individualism on the one hand, and group feeling on the other. Without the group, the individual is pretty much powerless, whereas a group without individualism tends to be bad for deviants. Individualism is good when it's used in a positive way, but it can also lead to evil ("I am important, the rest isn't, therefore I am allowed to do whatever I want"). Likewise, groups are good too, but have their darker sides ("We are the best, the rest is inferior and should be killed").

TheKak

When you choose to limit your beliefs/thinking to one rigid group of ideas, you are chaining your mind and limiting your invidual freedom. Society as a whole needs groups to survive, but the groups are all individuals pretty much all looking out for number 1 when it comes down to it.

This is why I choose to stay away from religion. Once you put a label on yourself as one religion or another, you have put yourself into a box. And sometimes it is very very hard to get out of that box once you are inside (like breaking the bonds of childhood indoctrination into religion).

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic and so am I.

tecoyah

Much of the individualism present in the United States, is a relatively recent phenom. I can see its birth in the growth of government. The "community" aspect of our culture has been taken over by legislated group thought, and has thus freed up the populations' attention to dwell on personal experience. The slow death of organized religion, and the loss of respect that entails is also garnereing a higher level of individual spirituality, which breaks the old bonds of dogma.

I see this as a good thing in the long run....if painful in the short.

Just my take

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Phage

One of the side effects I think of the western world enjoying more personal, individual freedom is that we will be much more likely to work together if that freedom is truly threatened. Americans are nearly impossible to make agree on any issue, but if you try to take away their right to go to Starbucks they will most likely vote to rip off your head and shit down your neck.

ARTelevision

This myth of individualism that has been inherited from the Romantic poets and the Age of Revolution, is good for selling products and making people feel empowered while they exist in essentially and increasingly powerless situations.

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create evolution

docbungle

ART,
Yes, there does seem to me an amazing number of people who consider themselves to be "original" or empowered moreso than others to make their own choices and be their own person. Some people consider the music they listen to or the books they read or the clothing they wear to make them more of an individual, while, in my opinion, it does exactly the opposite: establish a vague, subconcious feeling of connection with others who feel the same way or have the same "tastes."

However, when the idea that individualism=power is taken away, I think that we are all individuals inside our own mind, for even though we all live on the same planet, and we all see the same comercials and television shows, we do have the ability for individual thought. When you are alone, and left to your own thoughts, I think that, though maybe similar to a lot of others', those thoughts are absolutely your own, seen through your own personal viewpoint.

As far as I see, that is as far as true individualism goes.

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Bad Luck City

roachboy

yup--the "mark of our times" is wholesale self-disempowerment marketed under the name individualism. couldnt have set this up better.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

ARTelevision

docbungle, as for the locus of individualism you describe, it may very well be that, as gertrude Stein said of Oakland, Ca:

"there is no there there"

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create evolution

irateplatypus

roachboy, disempowerment... how do you mean?

i believe individualism in its current incarnation has a disorienting effect on us. when we have discussions or try to make critical observations about our world our, thought is given completely free reign between our skulls... but that condition keeps us from accepting things that go against our internal motivations. the traditions and heritage that used to guide our ancestors actions is sacrificed on the altar of the individual. the world outside our minds is only how we perceive it. the natural derivation of that notion is the complete relativity of truth.

if we believe truth to be relative (as we must if we take individualism to its final conclusion) then we lose our ability to truly speak to one another. i believe we can witness this phenomenon in our politics. the country is increasingly fragmented because the most fundamental ideas about our purpose, lifestyle, ethics and morality are becoming an element of choice rather than concrete cultural values.

each person decides which is right and wrong... a role that was previously reserved for God. whether or not you believe in God today is irrelevant, a shift in something that basic to our worldview must have far reaching consequences.

__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill