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Our rugged individualism has become a toxic individualism.
Too often, Americans sacrifice collective good for individual gain. That was something I explored this week for the @latimes section devoted to culture and #Elections2020
. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-30/how-toxic-individuality-is-tearing-the-u-s-apart
Too often, Americans sacrifice collective good for individual gain. That was something I explored this week for the @latimes section devoted to culture and #Elections2020
. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-30/how-toxic-individuality-is-tearing-the-u-s-apart
Individualism comes in many forms, but in the U.S. it frequently tied to the colonial settlement of the West and the myth of the up-by-the-bootstraps pioneer.
The term was popularized by Herbert Hoover in a 1928 campaign speech. (Ironically, right before the Great Depression landed, making government programs critical to the survival of millions of Americans.)
Yet it's a myth that persists throughout our culture — and not just in politics.
It's the Marlboro Man and the Lone Ranger and the private detective from noir literature who always works alone and always gets his man (even if he has to break a few rules).
It's the Marlboro Man and the Lone Ranger and the private detective from noir literature who always works alone and always gets his man (even if he has to break a few rules).
It also manifests in other ways. A private health system that sacrifices the health of many for the gains of few. The sanctity of individual home ownership over affordable socialhousing. The needs of solitary drivers over mass transit.
We put the singular above the collective.
We put the singular above the collective.
No issue has made this cultural trait more apparent than the pandemic and the debate over masks.
The fact that there is a debate at all on something that has been scientifically proven to disrupt the disease shows how toxic our brand of individualism has become.
The fact that there is a debate at all on something that has been scientifically proven to disrupt the disease shows how toxic our brand of individualism has become.
Other foundational U.S. stories offer more collective ways of thinking. Perhaps it's time to focus on those.
I personally like barn raisings. Popular in the 18/19th c., a barn raising was a town pooling its labor to build in a day what might take 1 person weeks to accomplish
I personally like barn raisings. Popular in the 18/19th c., a barn raising was a town pooling its labor to build in a day what might take 1 person weeks to accomplish
Collective work allows us to come together in important ways. As multimedia artist Cannupa Hanska Luger tells me, it offers "room for a better and more whole conception of your reality."
We could use that right about now.
My story here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-30/how-toxic-individuality-is-tearing-the-u-s-apart
We could use that right about now.
My story here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-30/how-toxic-individuality-is-tearing-the-u-s-apart
