Individualism or Selfishness?

I think that the notion of individualism is more developed in the United States than anywhere else in the world. It was a powerful tenet of our foundational document and a necessary characteristic of those who initially sailed the seas to establish colonies here. All men are created equal, the pursuit of happiness, the expectation of being as worthy as the next person are all manifestations of our individualism. And it is an important part of our heritage but we ignore at our own peril our history of cooperative effort and the willingness of individuals to put the greater good above their own.

The very early colonies were essentially communes and that was necessary to make possible the likelihood of survival. Native American societies lived in such a lifestyle going so far as to not even consider the private ownership of land. European nations seem to be much more cooperative in their populations and that is evidenced in their reliance on social programs that eliminate much of the risk of living.

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Our sanctification of the individual has had great benefits to our nation because it has allowed us to concentrate our wealth and energy in the areas that brought advantages to the United States even though we left many fallen behind us. That has long been considered OK since it was also long thought that even that person had equal opportunity to pull himself up by his own bootstraps and be successful. That dream of possibility was often enough to satisfy one's yearning for the good life.

Times change and so does opportunity. We have to consider that our desire for self-satisfaction and self-gratification also leads to plain old selfishness. Sometimes our desire to aggregate wealth and advantage leads us inexorably to the deprivation others may suffer. There is just no escaping that fact.

The times are gone when one could just move further west in search of land or fortune. Or when an Irish lad could weather the storms of the North Atlantic for a chance at a life in which there was enough to eat. Our economic model based on ever growing markets and consumerism has reached the saturation point within our own borders and now the great corporations have to seek greater wealth by expanding consumer bases beyond our borders leaving much of the domestic public to pick up the scraps that fall from the table. Those mega-giants have little concern for people rather than profits.

Oh, don't think me to be crying in my beer. The United States is still the wealthiest nation on the face of the planet and maybe the wealthiest that has ever been. It is just that future opportunity for those who do not enjoy the advantages of wealth is dimmed and is growing dimmer. A degree from the University of Kentucky may get you a job managing a Chick-fil-et but a degree from Harvard or Yale opens the doors of some of the wealthiest corporations in the United States. Is it because the education one receives there is so much better? Well, sometimes but the real advantage comes from the network of alumni of those institutions. Such access is simply not available to the average student aspiring to attain a part of the American Dream. Now we find that education at even the state universities is being priced out of the reach of many Americans. That is not the American Dream.

Our parents and grandparents grew up in the time of the Robber Barons, The Great Depression and then World War II. The oldest of them had seen the want of the great public while the Robber Barons consolidated wealth among the elite finally leading to the collapse of the financial system. Out of the ruins of that power and prestige came the Populist movements and the election of FDR who promptly set about establishing Social Security along with a host of other agencies that would protect people from those who had no concern for the health of the common man.

We still have robber barons, we just don't call them that. These days they are hedge fund managers. Those people who are expert at taking money from other wealthy people and doing whatever it takes to turn a hefty profit for those shareholders. They have enough heft to be able to pour millions into buying favorable legislation that has resulted in them having to pay a fraction of the tax rate the common man pays. If you think that is the American Dream you've been led down the garden path. It is no secret, the game is rigged and it is not those of the great unwashed who are on the receiving end. Instead it is those who are not just individualists but also those who wash their selfishness in the water of free enterprise in order to call it clean. It is not clean. It is what scripture calls lucre in the admonition against love of money. Is a person free who is enslaved to a system whose institutions foster inequality? There are more chains than those that make shackles.

The great example is that our nation has from time to time thrown off the mantle of individualism and selfishness and pulled together equally for the common good. The restrictions that we place on ourselves in order that the entire people can enjoy the fruits of this great experiment are significant temperings of selfishness. We are at a time when those who would emphasize the collective good are ideologically opposed to those who shout the virtues of individualism. Mankind is at a point in history when the individual, while able to accomplish much, will not be able to bring equality of opportunity. It must be the associations of people that will bring the next great leaps for humanity.

Some of great wealth have already planned to give away the vast portion of their wealth and that is commendable but it faintly smells of what Daniel Moynahan called benevolent despotism. While we should never condemn people who gain wealth through honest endeavor we must be aggressive in our understanding of what constitutes honest endeavor.

That's my take on individualism and selfishness. On dealing a fair game or dealing from the bottom of the deck. What's yours?