Best of 2008: “Individualism vs. Individuality” (January)
Dec 23, 2008 Best of the Blog
Originally posted on January 22, 2008:
Over in the discussion at another blog I am having trouble getting some people to recognize that the distinction between individualism and individuality is more than semantic. I am adapting from my comments there to raise the issue here.
Is “individualism” a desideratum at all? I think perhaps it is not. Now, individuality is a fact and is something to be embraced. But individualism is primarily defined thus: “Belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence.” That is: Assertion of the primary importance of the individual is primary.
There are many paths to living a meaningful life (which is not to say that there is infinite number of paths). Individuality is unique to humans, and God surely must expect us to utilize it in our lives — individuality, that is — but not to make individual expression the purpose of our lives, which is individualism, a sort of narcissism.
This distinction matters a lot, and is surely not petty nor semantic. There are a number of ways to consider this question, but let me raise one near and dear to my own heart (of course): Certain people, let us say, come to the table with a world of personality and ego. The task of such people is not to gratify their egos, a Sysiphisian task in any event. No, rather it is to use personality, individuality, as a tool and contributing to the human enterprise — either by negation of that power and intensifying some quieter aspect of life, or by harnessing it in its most obvious form and channeling it into service and productivity.
If, in contrast, one insists on expression of personality — with the attendant ego gratification — as the alpha and omega of existence, he is excessively self-centered; he lacks adequate connection to Creation; and he cannot be called an adult or a fully-formed person (a mensch).
Such a one will surely have a world of trouble living in a universe that is too small for both him and God, and even the rest of us are likely to wish he would find somewhere else to sit.
Comments here are closed, but they’re still open at the original post.
