Unchecked individualism destroys individuality rather than protecting it

Evidence

The situation in which the individual was vanishing was at the same time one of unbridled individualism, where ‘all was possible’: ‘Above all, individuals are now worshipped instead of gods.’ 1 That the setting-free of the individual by the undermining of the polis did not strengthen his resistance, but eliminated him and individuality itself, in the consummation of dictatorial states, provides a model of one of the central contradictions which drove society from the nineteenth century to Fascism. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 169

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox of ‘unbridled individualism’ as the agent that eliminates the individual is a core negative-dialectical reversal; freedom from society robs the strength for freedom.
• STORYSTEM: A worldbuilder or novelist could invert the cliche: a society that abolishes all social constraint produces not flourishing selves but fungible, defenseless subjects who capitulate to terror.
• ADDENDUM: Ties to the sacrifice essay’s logic: sacrificial subjects dissolve once separated from the mediating social fabric.
• XREF: connects to: Self-domination destroys the very subject self-preservation aims to save — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 62; Individuality cannot escape the social system because its inner essence already embodies that system; Free collaboration is the only path between false individualism and false collectivism (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Forced individualism damages society the way dams damage watersheds #corroborates (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 510
• Disciplinary power produces individuality rather than merely restricting it from outside #expands (0.82)
• The question is what produces individuality, not how society acts on individuals #qualifies (0.80) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 137
• Standardized production forces a compensating pretence of individualism #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 82
• Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands #complicates (0.78)
• Individualist citizenship logic hides group-based harm and privilege. #complicates (0.75)
• Individualism becomes a moral defense of the status quo once group-based paternalism is challenged #complicates (0.75)
• Dominants adopt individualism as a new defense when group-based hierarchy is challenged #complicates (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 674