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. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
