individualism

Psychology

2022

We explain what individualism is and what are the different meanings it has. Also, their differences with collectivism.

Individualism pursues the total liberation of the individual.

What is individualism?

Individualism is a political, moral and philosophical trend, whose values supreme are the autonomy and self-sufficiency of the individual in society, emphasizing their "moral dignity" in the face of any attempt to intervene by the Condition or any other institution in your personal decisions and choices.

Individualism pursues the total liberation of the individual, and that is why it places it at the center of its interests, since the human rights and individual liberties are its main bastions. Many political and social movements drink from the stream of individualism (such as the liberalism, the existentialism and the anarchism individualist), opposed to doctrines influenced by collectivism (the communism, the socialism, anarcho-syndicalism, etc.).

This current comes from the individual salvation posed by the religion Christian during the Middle Ages, but it was drastically modified by the prevailing ideology during the Industrial Revolution, so it became one more component of the way of seeing the world proposed by the capitalism.

Other meanings

Individualism is also understood as the tendency in the artistic and bohemian spheres to contravene the traditions established and bet on self-creation and personal experimentation, distancing themselves from popular or mass opinions.

And in everyday or popular language, it can be used as a synonym for egocentrism, narcissism, selfishness or that type of behavior in which individual desire prevails over the well-being of the mass.

Individualism and collectivism

Individualism and collectivism are opposing doctrines. While the first defends individual freedoms and free existence as the objective to achieve, the second advocates social responsibility, community awareness and putting the needs of the community to the wishes of the individual.

Philosophical doctrines such as free thought, ethical selfishness (or moral selfishness), or objectivism are the product of the union of individualism and capitalism (in what has been called economic individualism), and are to a certain extent heirs of the bourgeois liberalism of the Modern Era.

From collectivism these doctrines are considered as the product of a not very altruistic society, focused on selfishness and individual benefits instead of common welfare.

Individualism in today's society

Contemporary society is often torn between collectivism and individualism as its two opposite and possible tendencies. During the close of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, a marked trend towards individualism was noted in global terms, after the fall of the great collectivist projects of the eastern communist bloc, German reunification and the opening of China to global markets. This led to individualism being the prevailing system in politics Y economy of the contemporary world.

However, collectivist projects tend to reappear, as happened in the Latin America in the decade marked by progressive and populist governments such as Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina), Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador). For some, however, the balance is not too favorable (especially in the Venezuelan case) and this led to a new return to capitalist individualism in the region.

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