Individualism treats humans as autonomous accumulators detached from community.
Evidence
Individualism, at heart, is the assumption that humans are autonomous agents, who are at their best when independent from community and culture, and who are naturally predisposed to the accumulation of goods and materials to satisfy their own needs and wants. Rene Descartes’ famous dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” is a perfect motto for this discourse. In this assertion the autonomous “I” is the source of all rationality, meaning, and knowledge. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 551
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Autonomous thinking self is a fiction; mind is relational communication — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 464; Dominant groups deny their dependency on those they exclude — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 597; Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands
#expands(0.85) - The autonomous-individual ideal of citizenship structurally prevents acknowledging group-based harms.
#expands(0.85) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 381 - Individualist citizenship logic hides group-based harm and privilege.
#expands(0.85) - Emancipation from society weakens rather than empowers the individual
#corroborates(0.82) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 169 - Humans are obligately interdependent, not naturally solitary
#corroborates(0.82) - Individualism becomes a moral defense of the status quo once group-based paternalism is challenged
#expands(0.80) - Individuality cannot escape the social system because its inner essence already embodies that system
#qualifies(0.80) - Humanism centers individual agency and subjective intuition against received authority
#expands(0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 49 - Disintermediation atomized society into isolated individuals
#corroborates(0.78) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 82 - Individualism and filter bubbles fragment human society the way dams fragment watersheds
#expands(0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 510