Individualism

I won't be providing any sort of in-depth analysis on the topic I'm about to discuss, but it's a notion I've recently encountered and am now beginning to recognize it in its various forms in our culture, our world and our generation. So these are some of my incomplete, partially formed thoughts on individualism.

According to Wikipedia, individualism is used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. Individualists promote the unrestricted exercise of individual goals and desires. They oppose most external interference with an individual's choices.

Which, I think, on paper and in our democratic society, is a good thing.

I would now like to share parts of a speech directed to university students and young people about religious tolerance and building a better world given by the archbishop of Denver. (The full speech can be found here)

(M)uch of American culture right now is built on an adolescent fiction. The fiction is that life is all about you as an individual—your ideas, your appetites, and your needs. Believe me: It isn’t. The main interest big companies have in your wants and mine is how to turn them into a profit. Part of being an adult is the ability to separate marketing from reality; hype from fact. The fact is, the world is a big and complicated place. It doesn’t care about your appetites. It has too many of its own needs, and it won’t leave you alone.

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You know, there’s a reason why “spirituality” is so popular in the United States today and religion is so criticized. Private spirituality can be quite satisfying. But it can also become a designer experience. In fact, the word spirituality can mean just about anything a person wants it to mean. It’s private, it’s personal, and, ultimately, it doesn’t place any more demands on the individual than what he or she wants.

Religion is a very different creature. The word religion comes from the Latin word religare—to bind. Religious believers bind themselves to a set of beliefs. They submit themselves to a community of faith with shared convictions and hopes. A community of believers has a common history. It also has a shared purpose and future that are much bigger than any political authority. And that has implications. Individuals pose no threat to any state. They can be lied to, bullied, arrested, or killed. But communities of faith do pose a threat. Religious witness does have power, and communities of faith are much harder to silence or kill.

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If you want to serve the common good and build a better future, you’ll never do it by hiding your faith in the closet. You’ll never do it by being Catholic in private and something else in public. History is made by people with convictions, and the courage and passion to live those convictions. The path to interfaith peace and religious understanding demands that we live our faith more deeply and authentically, not less.

When I was in Peru this May, we met with an organization that was working with a community that had been torn apart by the kind of individualism that is so prevalent in our culture today. They were an "invasion" settlement in Lima (those from the countryside who fled to Lima during the terrorist regime of the Shining Path) and they were a poor district, lacking basic necessities, such as running water and electricity. They used to be a community that banded together when it became evident that one of them was in need. For example, the community would have "chicken parties" (ie. everyone makes chicken and sells it on the street) to raise money to pay for a neighbour's medical bills. But back in the mid-nineties, as part of the former president's re-election campaign, social programs offered handouts to the poor and soon after that stopped, international NGOs took its place. This has created a culture of dependency and individualism. People won't do things unless they know they will get something in return. The mentality is but what will I get out of it?

I would also like to point out that this organization is amazing because they work with children to undermine this kind of culture. They focus on personal development and empowerment of these children at a young age so they don't grow up feeling like they have to be a victim. For example, the secretary makes an inventory of all the donations and the kids decide on how these donations should be distributed equitably among the community. It isn't about them or what they get out of it... it's about the common good.

The world tells us that life is about us. I commonly think that life is about me, about what I can get out of it, about what I can give, about where God has placed me. But thank goodness that we have a God whose thoughts and ways are higher than mine, higher than ours. When I think about me only, life becomes exactly as the archbishop describes. It's about my wants and my needs and my spirituality. I don't have to go any further than I want to go. I can be satisfied as long as I am taken care of.

Life isn't about just us. I know this generation knows it, feels it and craves for life better than it is right now for all of us. We won't be the change we want to see in the world on our own. We were made to do it together. You may say that the revolutionaries in our history did it when no one believed in them... but people like Martin Luther King couldn't have done it alone; he led his people to freedom. We are so much stronger together. We are called to live more deeply and more authentically - be it in our faith in religion, humanity or God Himself. When we are bounded by common convictions, hopes and values and when we are courageous enough to stand up against injustices in the world -- we cannot be silenced.