Whether it is dependency on someone else for money, food, or clothing, it all creates a feeling of resentment in a person. Upon taking this into consideration, the ideals of individualism and self-sufficiency begin to appeal to someone. Self-sufficiency takes the weight of dependency completely off one’s shoulders and the idea of individualism takes the guilt of their shoulders as well. No longer would you need to depend on others, and you wouldn’t feel obliged to help other’s either. Instead you can focus on your own aspirations, both political and social. However having a community of people based on the virtues of individualism and self-sufficiency would cause some problems. The first issue is if it could even be considered a community. Dictionary.com defines a community as “a group sharing common interests.” However, if that common interest is the pursuit of an individual interest, rather than common or collective interests, then is it still a community? Either way having virtues of individualism and self-sufficiency would jeopardize the community as history has proven during times when communities experienced a bad economy, came under attack from an enemy, or had conflicting aspirations. In America’s history, the basic ideas of individualism were applied in other ways: states’ rights. Less than 30 years into our country’s history, issues with states’ rights had already appeared. Having just gained independence from a nation that controlled almost all aspects of life, America was eager to pick up the idea of individualism. Even upon writing the constitution, each man who arrived had ideas that would benefit the state he was representing.
Leading up to the Great Depression, the idea of individualism had taken root regarding large corporations and businesses. Each corporation pursued methods that would be in the best interests of themselves and their capital. Because of this, when the Great Depression broke out in 1929, many corporations cut back severely fearing that their own industries would be ruined. Rather than unite together and stimulate the economy, corporations covered their own backs, unwilling to spend even a little bit of the capital they had amassed. Instead the economy continued to spiral downward as the cuts lowered demand even more which, in turn, led to more cuts.
One of the most prominent examples of the failure of a community based on individualism and self-sufficiency is the Civil War. In 1861 the South seceded from the North and established another nation: the Confederate United States of America. Whereas the North had relied heavily on the federal government and communal powers, the South relied heavily on each state’s individual rights. Ironically, in order to beat the North, the South would have had to combine their power in order to win their right for individual rights. Of course, this did not happen and the inability of the South to work together was one of the reasons that they lost the war. As the Confederates showed, it is nearly impossible to fight for individual rights and win against a force that is unified and fighting for a common reason. While one may argue that the community’s common reason would be maintaining their own rights, the issue would still remain of what was to happen after the fight. There would be difficulties in going back to each individual house and returning to their individualism; either they would change their ideals or one person would try and establish their ideals as the “correct” method.
My final example is the takeover of Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company. During this time, individualism was prominent as well, leading to vertical and horizontal integration. Vertical integration was the takeover of all productions related to one product from beginning to end. Horizontal integration however, was the takeover of the market for one product in particular. The Standard Oil Company became one of the first large trusts and relied heavily on horizontal integration. Rockefeller used many different tactics to ensure that his own prominence and success were achieved. He made deals with railways that other producers couldn’t, he sabotaged other producers, and he ended up taking over the whole market for oil. Now imagine the oil producers in a community; as the ideals of individualism go, a person would end up taking over the whole community eliminating the possibility of any other member’s prominence or success.
As you can see, having a community based on the virtues of self-sufficiency and individualism would actually weaken the community and possibly even disband it. They wouldn’t be able to protect themselves, from both foreign threats and economic threats, and they would conflict with each other’s goals.
Leading up to the Great Depression, the idea of individualism had taken root regarding large corporations and businesses. Each corporation pursued methods that would be in the best interests of themselves and their capital. Because of this, when the Great Depression broke out in 1929, many corporations cut back severely fearing that their own industries would be ruined. Rather than unite together and stimulate the economy, corporations covered their own backs, unwilling to spend even a little bit of the capital they had amassed. Instead the economy continued to spiral downward as the cuts lowered demand even more which, in turn, led to more cuts.
One of the most prominent examples of the failure of a community based on individualism and self-sufficiency is the Civil War. In 1861 the South seceded from the North and established another nation: the Confederate United States of America. Whereas the North had relied heavily on the federal government and communal powers, the South relied heavily on each state’s individual rights. Ironically, in order to beat the North, the South would have had to combine their power in order to win their right for individual rights. Of course, this did not happen and the inability of the South to work together was one of the reasons that they lost the war. As the Confederates showed, it is nearly impossible to fight for individual rights and win against a force that is unified and fighting for a common reason. While one may argue that the community’s common reason would be maintaining their own rights, the issue would still remain of what was to happen after the fight. There would be difficulties in going back to each individual house and returning to their individualism; either they would change their ideals or one person would try and establish their ideals as the “correct” method.
My final example is the takeover of Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company. During this time, individualism was prominent as well, leading to vertical and horizontal integration. Vertical integration was the takeover of all productions related to one product from beginning to end. Horizontal integration however, was the takeover of the market for one product in particular. The Standard Oil Company became one of the first large trusts and relied heavily on horizontal integration. Rockefeller used many different tactics to ensure that his own prominence and success were achieved. He made deals with railways that other producers couldn’t, he sabotaged other producers, and he ended up taking over the whole market for oil. Now imagine the oil producers in a community; as the ideals of individualism go, a person would end up taking over the whole community eliminating the possibility of any other member’s prominence or success.
As you can see, having a community based on the virtues of self-sufficiency and individualism would actually weaken the community and possibly even disband it. They wouldn’t be able to protect themselves, from both foreign threats and economic threats, and they would conflict with each other’s goals.