At 08:51 AM 7/6/96 BST, Richard wrote:
>Please believe that there is an important distinction between
>individualism and individuality. I value the latter.
> The approach of science has been to rip nature out
>from 'it's' context, to isolate 'parts' and to deny inter-relationships.
>This has been termed atomisation.
> Individualism is social atomisation. I dont grant myself
>many essentialisms but I do think that humans (like many other
>species) are inherently social. Individualism is a denial of this
>sociality, of empathy. Death of community etc. I think that is why
>ecofeminism must be anti-individualism.
I do not see any inconsistency in believing that humans are inherently
social and being an individualist.
To me individualism is one extreme on a continuum of ways society can make
decisions. In an individualist society all individuals make decisions for
themselves. The other extreme is dictatorship. Any decision-making structure
other than an individualist one inevitably involves some form of coercion:
some form of pressure to subsume individual conscience to that of the group.
Even the most blinkered Libertarian believes in a coercive State to some
extent. I believe it is the very things these people do believe the State
should do, which deny the rights of the mass of people. The most fundamental
of these is the protection of individual, perpetual, property rights in
things no human individual created through their labour. This denies the
right of all human individuals to equal access to natural materials. The
denial of these rights compells us to seek employment in the unnatural
consumption dependent economy.
I believe that in an egalitarian, individualist society individuals will
voluntarily form the most dynamic form of collective groups the world has
ever seen. People have much more energy for the things they choose to do. In
today's world there are too many well-meaning people, both patriarchs and
matriarchs, cornering resources to exert their influence to make people do
what they think is good for them.
Helen Marsh: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: +64 9 473 9760
5 Neilon Place, Browns Bay, Auckland North Shore, New Zealand
http://www.iconz.co.nz/~iwgordon
UBINZ - Universal Basic Income - http://www.iconz.co.nz/~iwgordon/ubinz.htm
