Individualism Makes Us Altruistic and Happy
Banish all notions that individualism has anything to do with selfishness. It’s instead part of what makes us satisfied and generous.
Rugged individualists.
Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Individualism is good, collectivism is bad. That’s what I first concluded as a teenager after reading Friedrich Hayek’s seminal treatise, “The Road to Serfdom.” Every life experience since then has confirmed my hunch. That makes it all the more irritating when opponents of individualism, out of ignorance or bad faith, keep distorting what it is.
A particularly misleading charge is that individualism should somehow be tantamount to selfishness and egoism. Individualists think only of themselves, this narrative goes, whereas people in collectivist societies take care of their group.