Individualism Was the Key to Our Success and Is Our Only Hope for the Future

By George Leef

Sunday, July 09, 2023

 

Why did the United States succeed so spectacularly in our early history? The reason was the ethos of individualism. Americans were free to live as they pleased and use their property as they chose, free of governmental constraints other than the common law. Sadly, we have drifted far from that tradition.

 

We need to revive the spirit of individualism, argues Professor Erec Smith in this Cato at Liberty article. 

 

What is pushing America further and further from individualism these days is the idea that our society is dominated by race; some groups are destined to succeed, and others are destined to fail. Smith calls that view “race fatalism” and finds it disastrous. He writes:

 

Race fatalism cannot exist without the idea that all people from a given race experience the world similarly (race essentialism), and that we are forever defined by our home environments (linked fate), concepts that could not be more opposed to individualism. Thus, to embrace individualism is to relinquish faith in the fundamentals of critical social justice.

 

Fortunately, when individualism destroys these fundamentals steeped in powerlessness, it gives birth to agency and freedom conducive to an empowered and fulfilled life.

 

Exactly. That is why the Left is so desperate to push race fatalism. It gives them voters who believe that they need the handouts and gimmicks offered by leftist politicians, and it creates great numbers of ersatz jobs for their supporters.

 

Smith correctly concludes, “Individualism is not only the best thing for curing the ills of social injustice; it is also, by nature, the downfall of critical social justice ideology.”

 

Hat tip: Don Boudreaux