The Value Of Individualism In America
YiQing Ruan
Socy 201
11/19/2013
The Negativity of Excessive Emphasized Individualism In America Individualism is an ideal that most people have aspired to in America. The word itself has a very positive meaning in American cultures. Individualism is something that defines the United States; it is something that makes the United States unique compared to other countries; It is something positive, something good, something most people would want to obtain. Most Americans tend to over encourage the value of individuality. However, over emphasis and encouragement of individualism could lead to many deviant behaviors. That could eventually cause problems in the function and growth of the society. What is individualism? Using …show more content…
the dictionary definition, Individuality is distinctive or unique character or personality. In sociology , Individualism is a social psychological term that refers to the ways in which people identify themselves and focus their goals and gives priority to personal goals (as opposed to the goals of a group or society) (10) . In addition, individualists tend to define their own identities according to their own personal behaviors and attributes. According to Craig Biddle, author of Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice, “just like most people in western Europe countries, Americans are typical examples of the term individualism.” The United States is well known for its individualism around the world. Why is America cultural focused on individualism?
Mainly because individualism plays a huge part in the history of the U.S. When the colonies were sent from Britain to this unknown land, they were treated with little to no respect; instead of heroes that discovered new land, they were more like guinea pigs, to test and die for the royals. As American fought for their rights and independence, the idea of making yourself free of controls and being able to do whatever you want without other people suppressing you became the most important cultural value to America. Even though these values might have changed throughout history, but the main idea is still remaining the same. That is the reason why phrases like “It’s a free country…” ,“I have the right!” are most used among …show more content…
Americans. Individualism of Americans means the freedom to “choose my own way,” make my own decisions, and this is deeply rooted in the American society. Individualism was greatly encouraged amongst Americans, especially their kids. You can easily see individualism in American society in advertising, Billboards and TV commercials are directed at individuals who can decide whether to buy a product or not. There is no advertisement that says, “Ask your parents whether you can have….” Many kids were taught the value of individualism from the start both consciously and unconsciously. Many kids in their early age are encouraged to develop the sense of individual identity, responsibility and achievement. Such as feeding themselves, cleaning their own bedroom and managing their own hygiene. Effects of individualism (macro) According to John Renesche, “While this individualism has been key for much of our entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity, few have looked for a potential downside to this Yankee personality trait.”(2) Even though individualism gives positive traits , but there is always a darker side, and most people tend to overlook that. In a country like the United States, where individualism is hugely emphasized, which makes the negativity also will become more obvious. Individualism has a huge impact on the macro level within the society. According to Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez, “Faced with growing homelessness, rising unemployment, crumbling highways, and impending ecological disaster, our response is one of apathy, frustration, cynicism, and retreat into our private worlds. The social problems confronting us today, the authors argue, are largely the result of failures of our institutions, and our response, largely the result of our failure to realize the degree to which our lives are shaped by institutional forces and the degree to which we, as a democratic society, can shape these forces for the better.” (4) US citizens are constantly frustrated and becoming agonized with the problems such as unemployment, homelessness and economic failure. They always blame everything on the government, blame it on the others. But they are missing the most important question, and the root cause of these issues. And what is the real cause? The reason most people wouldn’t ever ask themselves that question is because by doing that, there might be the chance to lose the one thing that they value the most. That is their individuality. There are many reasons individuality is the root cause of these issues. First, the individuality is mainly based on the idea that individual value, that means everyone's value is different, unique yet equal from each other. Second, excessive individuality could cause a bigger ego, and which would most likely result in a byproduct of selfishness and greed. Third, most people are conditioned to do things alone, relying only on their own power, and on the contrary, relying on other seems to be “shameful”. Forth, individualism usually put individual goals, initiative and achievement at first instead of the collective group goal. Let's look at the rising unemployment rates, most US citizens had heard of this and are very concerned about this issue . But when it comes to solving this problem, most of the U.S citizens often just keep doing their daily routine, trying to achieve their personal goal in their own life. People often do not feel the responsibility of achieving something as a whole society. In an individualism biased society, people will have to try to rely on themselves, relying on others are portrayed as “shameful” and “powerless”. John Renesch said in his article, “We avoid relying on the community while it is implicit in other cultures. In fact, this drive is so strong in Americans that research is starting to show that we fear being dependent on others as much or more than we fear death!”(2) So most of the unemployed people would rather not ask others that have the resource and power to provide a job. And by trying to do everything by themselves, once they fail, it will most likely to create a scene of desperation, which could lead to a higher chance for a person to do something deviant or even commit a crime. Aside from these reasons, there is one more thing that causes these issues. that is how The United States define the word. It is not the word of individualism, but the opposite word of that term, collectivism. Most people in US oppose the concept of collectivism not because they think it might not work, but because collectivism sound really like two other things that are “forbidden” in the US society. They are communism and socialism. These two terms are like a nightmare for most US citizens, because most of us are taught and conditioned in a way that when we see the word “communism” and “socialism”. There is a negative feeling that goes along with it, not because the meaning of the word, but because most people are under the constant exposure of negativity in communism and socialism societies by the media. Especially with countries like Russia , Germany and China, that are well known for its communism or socialism. People tend to turn away from agreeing or even talking about the political value of these countries. Not because these countries have a totally different concept, but because if one says he or she is pro communism or socialism, he/she would most likely to be treated differently, viewed as an out group of the current society, as an outcast by the majority, and on some extreme could even be viewed as anti American. Individuality in this country also makes it harder for the government officials to do their job. For example the recent hot issue, the “Obama Care”a universal health care that current President Barack Obama wanted to pass. What is this Obama Care? It is a universal heal care plan to help citizens of the United States. It is a plan that offers many different positive qualities such as free preventive care, small business credits and a controlled health care marketplace to prevent healthcare fraud. (5) Even though this plan was intended to help out The United States, why is there so much negativity surrounding it? Or another question is while other developing countries such as China, Australia, Russia have universal health care, why can't a developed country like the United States have that privilege too? The answer is because of the excessive emphasis on individuality. In order for this health plan to work, it is crucial for the people to work together, and help each other as a whole. And that is the biggest downfall of this plan. Maybe in some other countries, this plan would work wonderfully, but not in the United States. Where the most important cultural value is based on individualism. Where everything is more self oriented. Most people would not want to cut away their pay check to help some random stranger, and on the contrary, most people that could obtain the help would not want some stranger to cut away from their paycheck to help themselves. Aside from the difficult on passing bills and laws, American individualism also creates a very unique government. Individualism's macro level effects doesn't only apply to the economy, it also affects United States' political standards. The most basic knowledge that all Americans know is that the US government is mainly spread into two parts, where one isn't as eager for reform or change, and believes that the system shouldn't be tinkered with, and that government should remain small and out of the picture, are known as Republicans. The other political party feels the past was flawed and look more toward a future of change and innovation, usually involving more government action and assistance, as known as Democrats. But how does two parties with a completely different view and objectives work with each other under one roof? The answer is that they really don't. Most of time, two different parties usually try to knock each other out, instead of trying to work out something together. As most people know, the President of United States usually are from either political parties, a Republican or a Democrat.
And by just briefly looking over a presidential timeline, many people would notice that there is this rotation between political parties. (6) Most people think this is a great concept, because of the mind set of individuality, where everyone is a unique person, and everyone should be able to get a term in the office, because it is a person's right. Many people think that helps the opposite party to check and balance the other party. But I beg the differ. The only reason that concept of rotation of political parties is good, is based on the foundation that there are two or more political parties that is dominating the current government. While Republican and Democrats have totally different views. It seems that of each presidency, a president always has to clean up the mess for the previous term. George W. Bush and Barack Obama are a perfect example. But by having that process of cleaning up, and fixing issues, it costs time, money and effort to do so. If there was no excessive emphasis on individualism, where people are not always worried about their own position, their own party, where there is no political party system that will always oppose each other, instead work together as a whole team. I believe by then, the system itself will be much
better. Effects of excessive individualism (micro) Excessive individualism doesn't only have an effect on the society on a macro level, more importantly, it has a deeper impact on the micro level of the society. One of the most occurring issues that is happening not only in USA but the rest of the world is that is the divorce rates are shooting up. Marriage is a relationship, and it is the foundation for an ideal American family. And this heavily consists of a group effort. Both sides have to balance each other in order to achieve a good family. But this is harder to do so in the United States, because of America's excessive emphasis on the value of individuality. The relationship is not a one on one affair. Most of the time it is with the consent of the society and was a societal union like church, government and the family members.However, as most Americans are taught to pursuit with the idea of individualism, many of them tend to have a more self oriented personality and less bound with the sense of society. With a less sense of society, it allows people to have the option to choose and seek another path over the current one, in order to achieve the self satisfaction and self happiness, which results in an increase in the divorce rates in the United States. And many of these impacts are shown mostly in young kids. In the article “"Excessive individualism threatens our children, say experts.”, the researchers found : “Children with step-parents or a single parent are, on average, 50% more likely to suffer short-term problems with academic achievement, self-esteem, behavior, depression or anxiety.”(7) , children that have experienced these negative impulses could inhibit their chance of becoming someone with brighter futures. Kids are the future of a nation, like Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. President once said "Children are our most valuable resource." But in the current society, the youth are in an endless negative cycle. As kids are kept under the constant exposure of divorce and remarry in the current society, it will increase the chance of them being in divorce and remarry in the future too, and as the kids in this generation being affected by the divorce and remarry, the kids in the next generation will do the same too. And this endless cycle will keep running on and on. But, if there weren't much emphasize on individualism, this cycle will break. India is a great example, a country that mostly follows collectivisim, they only have 1.1 divorces out of 1000 marriages, ranked number one country in the world with the least divorce rates. (8) Aside from the marriage/divorce issue, excessive individualism also creates another huge issue within the society, overwhelming competition. In the United States, in fact in any country, there is only a limited amount of resources that can be distributed amongst people. With limited resource, there will always be some sort of competition between people for them to get more resource. But in a society where individuality is greatly emphasized, people will tend to become more competitive.
Individualism focuses on individual achievement and success is also a sociological term called competitive individualism. According to the sociology dictionary, competitive individualism is basically the idea that success, achievement, or the lack thereof is the result of merit. Basically, the ability of someone to succeed at something is based on how well that person gives effort and has the ability to do something. This is the driving force of competition. When there is only a limited amount of awards which can be given out, people will work harder to achieve them. (9)
Most people love this idea, because they think that the person who successes is because they have worked hard for the results, and it is what they deserve. Those that didn't succeed is because they are lazy, uneducated or something that is against the norm, something deviant such as addicted to drugs or an alcoholic. For example when people see a homeless person wandering on the streets, the most they will feel is the pity and sympathy for that homeless person, that individual who isn't doing well but not the society as a group. That is because the person who is observing is doing better than the homeless person, and the individualism they had helped them not feel the responsibility to take care of this public issue. Most of the time they do not want to be apart of this issue. As for those who realizes this is a public issue, they are often seen as a minority, someone in the out group, because everyone perceives things differently. Competitive individualism is also like a realistic conflict theory, where one way for the society to be better is for people to compete against each other, and that way there could be a chance for people to come up with solutions that suits best for the society as a whole. But in a competition there are always two extremes, winner and loser. While the winner gains extra resource, the losers have to work with what's left. But society isn't that simple, by the constant wind, it will create different social classes, and those that always lose will become stratified in their situation. Which could cause more issues instead of making the society better as a whole. Conclusion Individuality is a positive trait to have . It does help people define themselves from each other, help people to be unique and help people to be creative . I am not advocating for a society that erases individualism completely. I certainly do not want a society that is completely perfect or a utopia. Individualism is and always will be a critical need of personal life. We simply could not exist in a world of nothing but conformity. Individualism certainly needs to be maintain under some sort of control, it needs to be balanced with the idea of collectivism. People need to educate and accept about both individualism and collectivism. We need to keep Individualism but at the same time severely reduce, if not remove, the excessive emphasis on it.
Socy 201
11/19/2013
The Negativity of Excessive Emphasized Individualism In America Individualism is an ideal that most people have aspired to in America. The word itself has a very positive meaning in American cultures. Individualism is something that defines the United States; it is something that makes the United States unique compared to other countries; It is something positive, something good, something most people would want to obtain. Most Americans tend to over encourage the value of individuality. However, over emphasis and encouragement of individualism could lead to many deviant behaviors. That could eventually cause problems in the function and growth of the society. What is individualism? Using …show more content…
the dictionary definition, Individuality is distinctive or unique character or personality. In sociology , Individualism is a social psychological term that refers to the ways in which people identify themselves and focus their goals and gives priority to personal goals (as opposed to the goals of a group or society) (10) . In addition, individualists tend to define their own identities according to their own personal behaviors and attributes. According to Craig Biddle, author of Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice, “just like most people in western Europe countries, Americans are typical examples of the term individualism.” The United States is well known for its individualism around the world. Why is America cultural focused on individualism?
Mainly because individualism plays a huge part in the history of the U.S. When the colonies were sent from Britain to this unknown land, they were treated with little to no respect; instead of heroes that discovered new land, they were more like guinea pigs, to test and die for the royals. As American fought for their rights and independence, the idea of making yourself free of controls and being able to do whatever you want without other people suppressing you became the most important cultural value to America. Even though these values might have changed throughout history, but the main idea is still remaining the same. That is the reason why phrases like “It’s a free country…” ,“I have the right!” are most used among …show more content…
Americans. Individualism of Americans means the freedom to “choose my own way,” make my own decisions, and this is deeply rooted in the American society. Individualism was greatly encouraged amongst Americans, especially their kids. You can easily see individualism in American society in advertising, Billboards and TV commercials are directed at individuals who can decide whether to buy a product or not. There is no advertisement that says, “Ask your parents whether you can have….” Many kids were taught the value of individualism from the start both consciously and unconsciously. Many kids in their early age are encouraged to develop the sense of individual identity, responsibility and achievement. Such as feeding themselves, cleaning their own bedroom and managing their own hygiene. Effects of individualism (macro) According to John Renesche, “While this individualism has been key for much of our entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity, few have looked for a potential downside to this Yankee personality trait.”(2) Even though individualism gives positive traits , but there is always a darker side, and most people tend to overlook that. In a country like the United States, where individualism is hugely emphasized, which makes the negativity also will become more obvious. Individualism has a huge impact on the macro level within the society. According to Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez, “Faced with growing homelessness, rising unemployment, crumbling highways, and impending ecological disaster, our response is one of apathy, frustration, cynicism, and retreat into our private worlds. The social problems confronting us today, the authors argue, are largely the result of failures of our institutions, and our response, largely the result of our failure to realize the degree to which our lives are shaped by institutional forces and the degree to which we, as a democratic society, can shape these forces for the better.” (4) US citizens are constantly frustrated and becoming agonized with the problems such as unemployment, homelessness and economic failure. They always blame everything on the government, blame it on the others. But they are missing the most important question, and the root cause of these issues. And what is the real cause? The reason most people wouldn’t ever ask themselves that question is because by doing that, there might be the chance to lose the one thing that they value the most. That is their individuality. There are many reasons individuality is the root cause of these issues. First, the individuality is mainly based on the idea that individual value, that means everyone's value is different, unique yet equal from each other. Second, excessive individuality could cause a bigger ego, and which would most likely result in a byproduct of selfishness and greed. Third, most people are conditioned to do things alone, relying only on their own power, and on the contrary, relying on other seems to be “shameful”. Forth, individualism usually put individual goals, initiative and achievement at first instead of the collective group goal. Let's look at the rising unemployment rates, most US citizens had heard of this and are very concerned about this issue . But when it comes to solving this problem, most of the U.S citizens often just keep doing their daily routine, trying to achieve their personal goal in their own life. People often do not feel the responsibility of achieving something as a whole society. In an individualism biased society, people will have to try to rely on themselves, relying on others are portrayed as “shameful” and “powerless”. John Renesch said in his article, “We avoid relying on the community while it is implicit in other cultures. In fact, this drive is so strong in Americans that research is starting to show that we fear being dependent on others as much or more than we fear death!”(2) So most of the unemployed people would rather not ask others that have the resource and power to provide a job. And by trying to do everything by themselves, once they fail, it will most likely to create a scene of desperation, which could lead to a higher chance for a person to do something deviant or even commit a crime. Aside from these reasons, there is one more thing that causes these issues. that is how The United States define the word. It is not the word of individualism, but the opposite word of that term, collectivism. Most people in US oppose the concept of collectivism not because they think it might not work, but because collectivism sound really like two other things that are “forbidden” in the US society. They are communism and socialism. These two terms are like a nightmare for most US citizens, because most of us are taught and conditioned in a way that when we see the word “communism” and “socialism”. There is a negative feeling that goes along with it, not because the meaning of the word, but because most people are under the constant exposure of negativity in communism and socialism societies by the media. Especially with countries like Russia , Germany and China, that are well known for its communism or socialism. People tend to turn away from agreeing or even talking about the political value of these countries. Not because these countries have a totally different concept, but because if one says he or she is pro communism or socialism, he/she would most likely to be treated differently, viewed as an out group of the current society, as an outcast by the majority, and on some extreme could even be viewed as anti American. Individuality in this country also makes it harder for the government officials to do their job. For example the recent hot issue, the “Obama Care”a universal health care that current President Barack Obama wanted to pass. What is this Obama Care? It is a universal heal care plan to help citizens of the United States. It is a plan that offers many different positive qualities such as free preventive care, small business credits and a controlled health care marketplace to prevent healthcare fraud. (5) Even though this plan was intended to help out The United States, why is there so much negativity surrounding it? Or another question is while other developing countries such as China, Australia, Russia have universal health care, why can't a developed country like the United States have that privilege too? The answer is because of the excessive emphasis on individuality. In order for this health plan to work, it is crucial for the people to work together, and help each other as a whole. And that is the biggest downfall of this plan. Maybe in some other countries, this plan would work wonderfully, but not in the United States. Where the most important cultural value is based on individualism. Where everything is more self oriented. Most people would not want to cut away their pay check to help some random stranger, and on the contrary, most people that could obtain the help would not want some stranger to cut away from their paycheck to help themselves. Aside from the difficult on passing bills and laws, American individualism also creates a very unique government. Individualism's macro level effects doesn't only apply to the economy, it also affects United States' political standards. The most basic knowledge that all Americans know is that the US government is mainly spread into two parts, where one isn't as eager for reform or change, and believes that the system shouldn't be tinkered with, and that government should remain small and out of the picture, are known as Republicans. The other political party feels the past was flawed and look more toward a future of change and innovation, usually involving more government action and assistance, as known as Democrats. But how does two parties with a completely different view and objectives work with each other under one roof? The answer is that they really don't. Most of time, two different parties usually try to knock each other out, instead of trying to work out something together. As most people know, the President of United States usually are from either political parties, a Republican or a Democrat.
And by just briefly looking over a presidential timeline, many people would notice that there is this rotation between political parties. (6) Most people think this is a great concept, because of the mind set of individuality, where everyone is a unique person, and everyone should be able to get a term in the office, because it is a person's right. Many people think that helps the opposite party to check and balance the other party. But I beg the differ. The only reason that concept of rotation of political parties is good, is based on the foundation that there are two or more political parties that is dominating the current government. While Republican and Democrats have totally different views. It seems that of each presidency, a president always has to clean up the mess for the previous term. George W. Bush and Barack Obama are a perfect example. But by having that process of cleaning up, and fixing issues, it costs time, money and effort to do so. If there was no excessive emphasis on individualism, where people are not always worried about their own position, their own party, where there is no political party system that will always oppose each other, instead work together as a whole team. I believe by then, the system itself will be much
better. Effects of excessive individualism (micro) Excessive individualism doesn't only have an effect on the society on a macro level, more importantly, it has a deeper impact on the micro level of the society. One of the most occurring issues that is happening not only in USA but the rest of the world is that is the divorce rates are shooting up. Marriage is a relationship, and it is the foundation for an ideal American family. And this heavily consists of a group effort. Both sides have to balance each other in order to achieve a good family. But this is harder to do so in the United States, because of America's excessive emphasis on the value of individuality. The relationship is not a one on one affair. Most of the time it is with the consent of the society and was a societal union like church, government and the family members.However, as most Americans are taught to pursuit with the idea of individualism, many of them tend to have a more self oriented personality and less bound with the sense of society. With a less sense of society, it allows people to have the option to choose and seek another path over the current one, in order to achieve the self satisfaction and self happiness, which results in an increase in the divorce rates in the United States. And many of these impacts are shown mostly in young kids. In the article “"Excessive individualism threatens our children, say experts.”, the researchers found : “Children with step-parents or a single parent are, on average, 50% more likely to suffer short-term problems with academic achievement, self-esteem, behavior, depression or anxiety.”(7) , children that have experienced these negative impulses could inhibit their chance of becoming someone with brighter futures. Kids are the future of a nation, like Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. President once said "Children are our most valuable resource." But in the current society, the youth are in an endless negative cycle. As kids are kept under the constant exposure of divorce and remarry in the current society, it will increase the chance of them being in divorce and remarry in the future too, and as the kids in this generation being affected by the divorce and remarry, the kids in the next generation will do the same too. And this endless cycle will keep running on and on. But, if there weren't much emphasize on individualism, this cycle will break. India is a great example, a country that mostly follows collectivisim, they only have 1.1 divorces out of 1000 marriages, ranked number one country in the world with the least divorce rates. (8) Aside from the marriage/divorce issue, excessive individualism also creates another huge issue within the society, overwhelming competition. In the United States, in fact in any country, there is only a limited amount of resources that can be distributed amongst people. With limited resource, there will always be some sort of competition between people for them to get more resource. But in a society where individuality is greatly emphasized, people will tend to become more competitive.
Individualism focuses on individual achievement and success is also a sociological term called competitive individualism. According to the sociology dictionary, competitive individualism is basically the idea that success, achievement, or the lack thereof is the result of merit. Basically, the ability of someone to succeed at something is based on how well that person gives effort and has the ability to do something. This is the driving force of competition. When there is only a limited amount of awards which can be given out, people will work harder to achieve them. (9)
Most people love this idea, because they think that the person who successes is because they have worked hard for the results, and it is what they deserve. Those that didn't succeed is because they are lazy, uneducated or something that is against the norm, something deviant such as addicted to drugs or an alcoholic. For example when people see a homeless person wandering on the streets, the most they will feel is the pity and sympathy for that homeless person, that individual who isn't doing well but not the society as a group. That is because the person who is observing is doing better than the homeless person, and the individualism they had helped them not feel the responsibility to take care of this public issue. Most of the time they do not want to be apart of this issue. As for those who realizes this is a public issue, they are often seen as a minority, someone in the out group, because everyone perceives things differently. Competitive individualism is also like a realistic conflict theory, where one way for the society to be better is for people to compete against each other, and that way there could be a chance for people to come up with solutions that suits best for the society as a whole. But in a competition there are always two extremes, winner and loser. While the winner gains extra resource, the losers have to work with what's left. But society isn't that simple, by the constant wind, it will create different social classes, and those that always lose will become stratified in their situation. Which could cause more issues instead of making the society better as a whole. Conclusion Individuality is a positive trait to have . It does help people define themselves from each other, help people to be unique and help people to be creative . I am not advocating for a society that erases individualism completely. I certainly do not want a society that is completely perfect or a utopia. Individualism is and always will be a critical need of personal life. We simply could not exist in a world of nothing but conformity. Individualism certainly needs to be maintain under some sort of control, it needs to be balanced with the idea of collectivism. People need to educate and accept about both individualism and collectivism. We need to keep Individualism but at the same time severely reduce, if not remove, the excessive emphasis on it.