The author of this article seems a bit feverish.
Posted on 04/02/2020 10:26:28 AM PDT by Arones
There comes every few years a phrase that perfectly captures a cultural moment. "Irrational exuberance" was Alan Greenspan's way of telling investors to tread lightly. The CIA liked "plausible deniability" in the 1960s.
The one I have seen recently, and really has struck a chord, is "pathological individualism."
It is without question that the conditions in early America, particularly during westward expansion, called for a type of person who was self-reliant, determined and able to shape his environment by sheer force of will. This became a uniquely American archetype in movies, portrayed by the likes of John Wayne or Gary Cooper, the man who stands alone, ready to duke it out with the evildoers.
It's a useful model, and survives because there are still times when one man fights the system. As films go, "Dark Waters" is a recent example.
But as "pathological individualism" implies, this mindset can be corrupted. There reaches a point at which individuals, even with the highest ideals in mind, misapply the concepts of individualism until it is indistinguishable from selfishness.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyherald.com ...
Curious what Freepers think after reading the entire essay.
Sounds like psychobabble to me. No offense.
It sounds like Marxist professorial gobbledygook.
I think that your friend is regurgitating old university pap.
I don’t need to read the entire article to know it is wrong. It is trash. Individualism makes America great - individuals make their own decisions about helping others and helping themselves. That is how it should be.
Tell your friend his friend is a collectivist. A Bernie Bro.
A Bolshevik.
The word ‘pathological’ means a mental disease. The author is attempting to say that individualism that becomes blind to the group or to outside help becomes a mental disease. That is true. People who become enraged or bent on retribution are two types that fit the description.
However, I find many people who use such a phrase attempt to label others that are more capable and are rugged individuals as such. Cowards, underachievers, and incapable people often label people using such phrases. Rarely do we see achievers, brave men and women, and capable people denouncing the efforts of others using such phrases.
I'll single this bit out for my disagreement.
Individualism, I think, is inherently about freedom.
Collectivism, I think, is inherently about control by others for goals that are not the individual's goals.
Cooperation, I think, is about the freedom to associate and work with others with whom you wish to work. It falls, therefore, more on the side of Individualism than Collectivism.
When the government shuts businesses, arrests pastors for preaching, and orders people not to leave their home, then we are in a very special time. We "cooperate" in this in exactly the same way we "cooperate" with the IRS when paying our taxes. It's about coercion, not cooperation. It's about Collectivism, nor individualism. It's about control and not freedom.
Now, one could (I suppose) make the case that it's the right thing to do. But people who feel otherwise are not "pathologically individualist".
one country ...one religion...
Ridiculous Marxist BS. What this has revealed is bunching all together is a formula for disaster. The fools who passed the bans on single family housing look like the idiots we knew them to be.
Individualism is really the collective and progressive buzz word for LIBERTY. I am SICK of giving up my liberties and being told I cannot move. Sadly at tis time, the CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN SUSPENDED:
Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; or ABRIDGING the freedoms of speech, or of the press; or the RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLE, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It is constitutionally prohibited many of these orders, but we as a people willingly accept it and lie down like sheep. As nearly as I know, sheep get slaughtered. Our hard fought rights are being forfeited willingly and it MAKES ME SICK.
It also does not preclude the possibility that a single person working on the problem is incapable of achieving a cure on their own.
It’s unmitigated BS.
Communism and Socialism fail every time not because it’s “bad” to help your neighbor, but because it inevitably turns people into sheep followers who are unable to do their own thing without herd thought.
Then, when a crisis occurs (and they always do) the centralized and planed economies collapse under their own weight - resulting either in government failure and deaths (Venezuela) or a government that culls the herd to maintain power (China)
Rugged individualism demands that the responsibilities of ones life lie within and upon that person.
Bad things happen to people - that’s inevitable and helping your neighbors and family members through those times is the right thing to do.
It’s only because of my own rugged individualism that I have enough capital and cash banked up that I can help out my friends and family who are now unemployed and waiting on the government to save them with a paltry check. The same government that has denied them a livelihood because it thinks it’s going to save a few thousand lives.
This is a very typical leftist straw-man argument.
Create a bogeyman, that no one can disagree with. We will call it “pathological individualism.” We all agree that extremely selfish people are bad, right? Now we even have a new, pseudo psychological term to define it!
Now let’s apply this straw man to our present situation. If you play basketball outside, criticize extreme government regulation in this situation, or don’t “collaborate” like the good Americans of WWII. That makes you a “pathological individualist!”
See how it works?
The author of this article seems a bit feverish.
When a person kills someone, it's murder. When a government kills someone, it's genocide.
When an individual robs someone, it's theft. When government robs millions of people, it's taxation.
And people all following each other like a school of fish is what gave us Nazism, Maoism, and obamunism.
Folks living “off the grid” in AK and WY disagree.
Its subjective bullshiite.
One person’s self-interest is anothers selfishness.
This is just rationalization to take from those who have prepared wgile everyone else pissed money away on things THEY wanted tocspend money on, fun stuff like games and cars and drinking and holidays.
Everyone is selfish.
People not having kids is deemed selfish. People having kids is also selfish. every reason they cite to have them is selfish.
Indeed. Far better to just be lemmings marching over the cliff instead:
https://youtu.be/dGJ0mp4kRVo
Or maybe just communist slaves like in the PRC ...
His name is “Pat” - could he be a woman?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.