Particularity
Living life in the atomic age
I am the atomized man.
Pithy Quip
In a comments discussion with Donkey Konger at Avoidable Contact Forever
I think individualism over personhood is a problem
What Mean Pithy Quip?
The individual, as commonly used in today's society, is an atomic unit or entity and is considered essentially standalone. This entity is reduced down to sets of desires, all the better to sell to, all the better to manipulate; unburdened by unchosen attachments (conceptual freedom in liberalism is the rejection of unchosen bonds and radical self-determination); and therefore is in extremis essentially a non-being. E.g., a human who rejects all bonds, chooses none, and engages is no relationship might as well not exist. The ultimate individual is someone freed from anything and everything that would traditionally define a person. The individual is egocentric and unconcerned with anything other their the pursuit of something like their true self - usually in the form of pleasure or self-satisfaction - and can jettison anything and everything without thinking it is necessarily wrong to do so. Indeed, it would be wrong for them not to reject those in order to maximize their own happiness as it were. This feels freeing, this feels good, and ultimately it changes people into fungible cogs who can be shuffled around without much ado.
In contrast to the above a person would be defined by the sum of their bonds-as-identity and who they are/what their behavior is within and between those relational bonds. These bonds may dissolve, attenuate, or be broken over time: new bonds are formed and shape us and our external and internal identities, yet there is a persistence here which is missing within individualism. The person is not atomic; rather the opposite, as a husband and father I choose not to ride my motorcycle in winter both because it is imprudent risk wise even though there are days warm enough to go out on two wheels. The relationship and consideration thereof comes first, before some conceptual me and my desires. A person is, therefore, more likely to sacrifice on behalf of others.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
A person is elevated and elevates within his relationships, or as discussed below it is possible that he destroys and tears apart or nullifies instead. The person is not interchangeable as a rule.
That's the broad outlay of the conceptual split between the two and the modern US, obviously, emphasizes the individual and notions of individualism in culture at the expense of the person.
Our society emphasizes individuality/freedom/choice; and places the onus on every individual to figure out life for themselves. There is then a corresponding explosion in mental health problems, decay, and confusion; and mercenary attitudes where other people are used for self-satisfaction/exploitation materially. We should take note and begin to examine what can be done to change this. It's safe to say that the absolute emphatic individualism is making things worse at this point or not optimum for society and providing wholeness or satisfying lives.
There are also other issues that arise with mass-individualism, or rather mass-isolationism, and how isolated individuals are much easier to sway and condition vs someone embedded in a community with strong relationships1. The bare thrust of this notion is that it is easier to convince an atomic unit they need something (perhaps in order to maintain their perceived self-sufficiency or further extend their self-identity) than it is someone who knows he doesn't need everything all the time, and who has no one to tell him otherwise.
Politics and the Nation-State
We can apply this same pair of frameworks to the large group level – the modern nation-state. Mercenary globalists; concerned not with natural bonds, not with their neighbor, not with the particular, but with the notion that humans and human culture are fundamentally interchangeable. Fungible cogs in the line-go-up-machine and it doesn’t matter who is where or if there are borders or if you trust your neighbors as much as it matters that they get their bag. This is a difficult fight within the framework of the modern United States, whose business is business, and whose founding documents within the past hundred years have been used to emphasize the abstractions “we hold these truths to be self evident…” and not the particular “… to secure for ourselves and our posterity.” We are told and believe that anyone can be an American but this belies the part where they must become American. An organ recipient must be compatible with the donor or there are tragic consequence and this is true of bringing in new members to the corporate body of a nation.
These abstractions have lent themselves well to the notion of globalism and selling Americans on everything from open border policies to using vassal-proxies to fight wars they will lose but we will benefit from all in the name of democracy or human rights.
Applying the personal concept to the nation-state allows us to remember our history. This is good and bad, for no nation and no people is perfect, but it also orients us in our present lives and provides us with a layer of meaning and a binding cohesion. The common bonds must exist, it seems, as reality reveals to us our attempts to dissolve them bring not greater strength and a stronger body but internal strife and cancerous growths that seek to overthrow and kill. We witness the barely veiled bloodthirst and gloating about London being overturned and realize that their destruction was invited in through the front door. St. Arethas warned the people of Nephras not to believe the friendly lies and they threw open the gates only to be slaughtered and persecuted. Be innocent as doves, and wise as serpents.
I Am the Atomized Man
The first time I went to university none of my close friends were nearby - a ten or twelve hour trip by car. All of us scattered to the winds to take us where we thought best2. This was a time where I was broken, having had my relationship to my brother severed in a moment. Only possible to understand as a person and not an individual - after all, I didn’t choose my brother, and why would it matter if he was in an accident that left him comatose and retarded3? Why would that effect me and why would I feel guilty about not being with him on that trip? The relationships I had built over the years faded away and never were replaced in the same manner. For a time a person can get by; but, eventually, the man-who-is-an-island drinks away his anguish, stops doing the homework4, and the death knell rings as he stops taking the exams.
“It is not good for man to be alone.”
Jacques Ellul has noted this in Propaganda and C.S. Lewis made clear this notion in a work everyone should read, That Hideous Strength
Perhaps MatSci at SLO and keeping closer to friends would have been wiser instead of travelling north for MechE
Months in the hospital and longer before speaking another word; slurring; forgetful; the mind is quick to lose and slow or impossible to repair - I am haunted by this half life
Lecture is mostly for suckers and most professors don’t do anything more than cover the book material
Divided we fall and the requisit not so theoretical conspiracies. Some of the homeschool moms in the co-op we participate in had a conversation similar to this. Ours was mainly lamenting the loss of supportive women's communities who pass down knowledge and off mutual support to each other through difficult times specific to women. Hopefully we've seeded the start of one.
On voicing the opinion that modern American society seems to keep people more separate and vaunt the individual another lady quipped that it makes it easier to control us. Her words echoed through my brain for the most of the ride home as I thought about how the economy and society are set up. The increasing pressure to have a two income household pushing mothers out of the nest and necessitating parents putting their tiny littles in someone else's arms, for example. Or cities planned for cars instead of communities - all hail the commute and the steed you ride to get to where you're going. Dividing lines all over without a unifying base note (bass note?) to gel us. Because obviously group X is terrible, I'm a part of group Y.
There's likely more there, but truly:
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” JRR Tolkien
End tangent.
Some good thoughts in here .
I feel one can still be an individual and simultaneously be a good citizen .
Anyone who knows me on a personal level will attest to this .
Interesting how you tap dance around the importance of assimilation when one becomes an American citizen .
What makes American great is all the different people, cultures and ideas .
Assimilating them all is no small task .
Never forget that those who claim to be individuals (or sovereign citizens) are always the very _first_ to complain when the civilized things they refuse to pay for (roads, clean water, fire department etc.) break down .
-Nate