America's Problematic Individualism

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From the very beginnings of human existence, it was all about the survival of the group, that was the priority because as social beings, the survival of the group means survival of the species. However, in our modern society, especially in the United States, it appears as though this group mentality has disappeared, and instead, people have become self-centred and individualistic. It is no longer about the collective but rather the individual. To understand this we must explore the roots of self-righteousness and this mindset of your life individually being more worthy and valuable than another. 

Individualism is a byproduct of white supremacy and the colonial mentality, like a disease it has spread rapidly throughout and contaminated the America population, as we see now with countless videos surfacing of people protesting against wearing masks and just simply refusing to deal with extremely minor inconveniences for the better good of society. This attitude stems from the belief that “my life is more important than yours” and the inability to care or have sympathy for other people because you believe you are more important. This thought is similar to that of white supremacy. Individualism like white supremacy is a synthetic idea, it is unnatural to look out for only yourself. Historically speaking as well, in the stone ages, it was not uncommon for people to sacrifice themselves or their needs for the survival of the rest of the group. If there was not enough meat that meant everyone had less in order to make sure that everyone ate and those that needed more nourishment got more. But contrary to that, today people fighting each other for all the meat without consideration for the group collectively (i.e the beginning of the pandemic where people were trying to out-hoard each other of essential items such as paper.) 

As people began to become “civilized” and settle down to building civilizations, the main motto continued to be, working together and putting the community first, and regardless if you would argue that humans are inherently selfish, biologically, as living beings, we depend on others to survive therefore even if people are greedy or selfish it was in their best advantage to be part of a community and put their individualistic needs second because once the community can thrive, so can the individual. 

As colonialism and problematic ideas like social Darwinism arose, people were able to justify disregarding other people's lives because due to the racial hierarchy of white supremacy that was established, white people felt entitled and important enough to fight for themselves at the cost of others. Moreover, moving towards America’s founding era and civil war, individualism continued to penetrate the white American mind. It was the belief that was justified by the control they felt they endured from the British government pushing this narrative of “if they don’t care about me I'm going to care about myself”. 

A concerning amount of Americans don’t feel any social obligation, rather they feel the obligation to fight for themselves and rights that benefit them as individuals. This individualistic mindset is supported by the false sense of freedom and the freedom complex that exists within the United States which prides itself in being the “Land of the Free”. The idea of freedom is one that many Americans defend unconditionally and is used as justification for the irresponsibility that caused as a result of radical individualism. American freedom is false, a country in which slavery is still justifiable as criminal punishment (13th amendment), where black people are unable to exist safely, where the original inhabitants of the land are pushed out of their homes and unrepresented, where LGBTQ+ community is discriminated against medically, legally, and systematically is NOT a free country. There only exists a certain level of freedom for the wealthy and the privileged. American freedom does not exist for the overwhelming majority, American freedom is not attainable even if people are conditioned to believe it is. American Individualism blinds people into only seeing their private interest and believing that the “freedom” they think they possess allows them to endanger another person. Individualism does not only manifest itself socially like it is being seen now with safety measures during a global pandemic but also in politics, legislation, and fundamental rights. American individualism is perpetuated by white supremacy and people who refuse to care, learn about or acknowledge the realities of the other people and the world outside their own. American individualism is to believe something is not a problem because you haven’t faced it, it is refusing to not follow safety regulations because you don’t want to and you believe you have the “right” not to, it is being unable to see or care about an issue that doesn’t involve you, it is ultimately selfish and a threat to the country and its population. This is why the idea of “America first” is problematic as well. Because the problem with the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S is peoples’ “me first” mentality, “America first” is its equivalent on a bigger scale. It represents the idea that America is willing to sacrifice others to keep itself at the top. This is an extremely privileged and ignorant statement to defend. The American individualistic approach to life is unnatural. It is a mindset that desperately needs to be dismantled as it prevents unity and collective social progress.