The Myth of Individualism?
You’re an individual, right? A singular self, independent and self-sufficient, right? You’re a rugged individual, self-made and personally responsible, right? You are an island, right? You think for yourself, right? You are an individual with individual rights, right? And you’ve gotta stand up for those rights, right? You’ve got to make sure no one treads on them, right? I mean, that is your right as an individual, right?
So we have been told…
That is one part of the foundation of American ideology. But is it true? Are we really such stark individuals that need to stand up for our individual rights? I don’t know.
Let’s examine.
Biologically, do we arise independently from other biological beings? Or are we born of biological parents of our own species? Ok, but once we are born, we are pretty independent after that, right? Well, maybe not as much for the first 18-20 years of life, when our parents are supposed to make sure our biological needs are met. But after that, that’s when we become true biological individuals, right? Ok, except for maybe food. We do need to eat, and we mostly eat other biological beings — even if we are vegans! But, basically beyond that, we are pretty much islands, off on our own, right? Oh, but, there are those trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies that can affect our digestive health and even our mental health. Ok, so maybe on a biological level we rely on a lot of other biological beings for our birth, survival, bodily maintenance and functions.
But surely, we are individuals in other aspects of our existence, right?
From a chemistry perspective, we are pretty independent, right? I mean aside from breathing and drinking water and needing other minerals like electrolytes. Oh, and I guess there are other molecules that we need to build and maintain our bodies over the course of life. That kind of takes us back to biology a bit, because we get a lot of those molecules from other living beings. Even the oxygen we breathe and the water we drink often come from or are filtered by plants. So, much of our chemistry and the needs for certain atoms and molecules are met by other living beings and natural processes.
Ok, but basically on a social and psychological level we are still individuals, right?
Except for the fact that we are raised in a language group that shares a general culture that kind of influences how we think and act. But that’s basically it. Otherwise we are complete individuals! But there is also that aspect of our psychology where we tend to co-regulate each other’s nervous systems. And, I guess there is a lot of recent research that shows how deleterious social isolation can be for our physical health. So, maybe we aren’t as socially and psychologically independent as we think.
But economically, we are pure individuals — completely responsible for our success or failure to meet our own needs!
I mean, except for that first 18-20 years. Once we are independent, we solely meet our own economic needs. We grow all our own food, build our own housing, stitch our own clothes, build our own companies to employ us, and generally are self-sufficient. Well, maybe not so much these days. I mean some of us create our own jobs, but mostly we work at jobs created by other people or governments to get money to buy food, clothing, and housing that other people make. So, maybe we aren’t that economically independent — especially since the economy globalized and we rely on people we’ll never meet on the other side of the world to manufacture the items we need. Or, when we need to compete with them to be able to keep a job. So, maybe there is some level of economic interconnection?
So, how are we individuals? In what way are we individuals? If not biologically, chemically, socially, psychologically, economically? Does this claim hold up?
Have we just been sold a myth?
But why? Why would we be sold a myth that we are all individuals?
Who benefits from us all believing that we are individuals who need to protect and fight for our individual rights?
Maybe it is just a way to divide and conquer us? Instead of joining forces as a people to organize our society in a way that will work better for the vast majority of us, we are told to watch out for our individual rights. Our rights are under attack from each other. Those rights are much more important than working together, much more important than our collective safety, much more important than compromising, much more important than environmental health, much more important than our own individual and collective health as humans and as a society.
The founders of our country were self-interested, wealthy, white men. They believed in individual liberty and equality — for people like themselves. They didn’t include women, people of color, Native Americans — even poor white men who didn’t own property — when they separated from England over the issue of paying taxes without representation. Yet, they created a system in which most people did not have representation either — because they could not vote. But they did bestow upon us the status of individual. Depending on your lot in life, that may have conferred some benefits, maybe some responsibilities, even some hardships. But it generally worked for the powerful, the wealthy, the political class that had sufficient wealth that they could engage in the power dynamics in the society that positioned them to hold some level of power.
But most of us individuals were left out from the start. We have been told that it is better that way. That our individual rights protect us. And, they do protect us from some things. But is there a downside to thinking this way? To believing that individualism always benefits us in the long-term? Has it benefitted us as a society? As individuals? Are there times where our obsession with individuals rights conflicts with our collective rights? Maybe when it comes to having clean air to breathe or unpolluted water to drink? Or to live without fear of seemingly random gun violence? That our individual right-to-work trumps the collective benefit of collectivizing? That an individual’s right to profit supersedes a workforce’s right to make a livable wage? Maybe when individual rights get applied to corporations?
Maybe I could go on ad infinitum.
But is individualism really just a myth?