The Value Of Individualism

Question: Americans devotion to individualism is crucial for their survival. Which 3 values do you think are most important for the 21st century American and why?

Individualism is when a person has achieved non-conformity, self-reliance, free-thought, confidence, and finding one’s self through nature. Although individualism may be achieved in society, it cannot be fully achieved until one removes himself from society. Chris McCandless did exactly that; he removed himself from society by backpacking and hitchhiking throughout the United States to test and achieve individualism. McCandless’s last great adventure was to Alaska to fully obtain individualism, unfortunately, he died trying to find his spiritual belonging and individualism. Many people would think it was absurd that Chris left his family and threw his life away, and they would think that he was not justified in leaving society, however, Chris McCandless was justified in leaving society because by doing so he could achieve non-conformity and self-reliance without being oppressed.

America has had a tumultuous existence, replete with war, progress, and ideologies. The most formidable of these is individualism, or the shift of society’s focus from the group to the individual and a growing emphasis on their personal needs and desires. Despite wide criticism, it has become the societal norm, spanning all generations, genders, races, and walks of life.

Transcendentalism has been embraced by society through the movie The Lion King. The Lion King is a story about a young cub, Simba, who is born son to the king in a thriving kingdom. Simba goes about his days playing and enjoying life until his uncle, Scar, decides to plot a scheme to overthrow the throne. When Scar puts his plan into play, Mufasa, Simba’s father and king, dies. Due to the circumstances, Simba is led to believe it was his fault and runs away to hide from this accident. Consequently, Scar takes over the kingdom and brings it to ruins. During this time, Simba has found two new friends, Timon and Pumbaa, while hiding who take him in and teach him ideals very similar to that of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a philosophical belief system in which nature and personal thought of one’s self is believed to be the most important keys to life. The Lion King displays

Now that we know the textbook definitions of these words, let 's bring them into perspective in the setting of Anthem and “The Soul of an Individualist.” Prometheus is an egoist, but not in an unpleasant way. He has lived in a collectivist government for his whole life, this government taught that you could only be happy if you were working for your brothers. They also believed that the group mattered more than each individual in it. During the story, Prometheus begins to realize that individualism is not a bad thing. Individualism is the principle of being independent and self-reliant. He believes that he, himself, matters individually, not just the group as a

Anthem is a dystopian novel written by Russian author Ayn Rand in 1937. Ayn Rand was avid about the importance of the individual, and she supported a hands off government, where the people define and sustain themselves. Ayn Rand’s interest in the government’s effect on society certainly led into her creation of Anthem. At the start of the novel, Equality 7-2521, the protagonist, writes from a secluded tunnel and shares about the dystopian society he lives in which prevents education, and individualism. The society prevents individuals from learning on their own, having questions, doubting their elders, and threatens any sort of rebellion or individuality with extreme punishment. The main concept that the novel

Individuality is lost due to the meaningless laws and lack of education. One of the laws is “for writing this or even reading this is 3 years in prison” (Rand ch.1, page 14). This is saying that the people in the society all have to be equal. No one is stronger than anyone else, smarter than anyone else, or better than anyone else. The reason no one is more powerful is because they are all equal and treated the same.

1) Compare and contrast the British colonial rule and acquisition of colonies with the Spanish model in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Individualism is a person’s personality, and how they do the things they do and why. In the poem ‘’Thanatopisis’’ a quote that describes individualism ‘’She has a voice of gladness, and a smile, and eloquence beauty, and she glides into his darker musings. ‘’Devil and Tom Walker’’ he describes individualism be awful ‘’ Lived

The values that are the most important to individualism are rule of law, and self interest. Though I am still growing in my values and beliefs as a male citizen in Canada I believe that rule of law is the most important to individualism because everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. Way back a long time ago people were ranked based on who their parents were. A good example of that would be the feudal system or the term we would call feudalism. The feudal system is a ranking system that has the King/Queen on the top and the peasants at the bottom. You did not have a choice whether or not you wanted to be a peasant(commoner) or you wanted to be one of the royals. Another example I've be giving is when we humans were still discovering the aspect of communication we only knew our family and maybe that was it.

In today’s generation, we have learned about collectivism in history classes. In the Holocaust the majority of the people didn’t have a say about anything. In today's generation, we have individualism in our society today. Everyone has the right to make their own choices, such as, if one wants an education or not. Collectivism is when there’s total social and environmental control in a society and no one is allowed chose for them self. Individualism is when one has to chose to do something by him or herself. Throughout the novel Anthem, the allegory of the battle between collectivism and individualism is a huge part of Equality’s life.

The utopian society in the Brave New World can be compared and contrasted between our contemporary society using individualism, community and the human experience. The fictional novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932, is about a utopian society where people focus stability and community over individuality and freedom, but an outsider is introduced to intervene with the operation of the utopian state. In the contemporary world, people need to show individuality in their communities in order to survive, and to be human, one must show emotion, which is the opposite in the Brave New World.

In today's society, the balance between individualism and conformity to society's expectations is a prominent and deceptive conflict. Oftentimes, the individual must put his uniqueness aside and settle for a view of an occupation, hobby, or idea that society agrees with. Instead of expressing original and creative ideas, they are held hostage by comparing themselves with the lives and accomplishments of others and the standards their our society. One of the biggest tools of society, social media, allows people to share ideas and interests with everyone. However, naturally, one will only post what he knows others will accept and enjoy just as he does. This, in turn, does the opposite of what social media were intended to do. Instead of allowing the expression of unaltered and original ideas, it is a platform of suppressed individualism which only encourages mainstream concepts.

His definition of individualism was that people are happiest when they ignore the outside world and they stay in their bubble of friends, family and domestic life. He compares egoism to individualism saying that: “Egoism is a preversity as old as the world and is scarcely peculiar to one form of society more than another. Individualism is democratic origin and threatens to grow as conditions become equal” (Page 588, Chapter 2, Democracy in America, Tocqueville). He is saying that egoism is only a few steps away from individualism and that a democracy causes men to focus more on themselves since everyone is already equal socially they want to be different within

Individual freedom is the constitutional value of the human person as such, the foundation of his duties and rights, according to which each can decide freely on the necessary issues of his life, making himself responsible to society for the consequences of his or her actions and decisions. In different times and historical events, people 's freedom have different ways of being shown. In the modern era, individual freedom is presented in three levels of activity: freedom of thought and opinion, political freedom and association, and freedom of work and economic ambition.