Individualism: Concept and Different meanings

We explain to you what individualism is and what are the different meanings it possesses.Besides, its differences with collectivism.

Individualism pursues the total liberation of the individual.

What is individualism?

Individualism is a political, moral and philosophical tendency , whose supreme values ​​are the autonomy and self-sufficiency of the individual in society, emphasizing his "moral dignity" against any attempt at intervention of the State or any other institution in their personal decisions and options.

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

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

Other meanings

Individualism is also understood as the tendency in the artistic and bohemian fields to contravene established traditions 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 synonymous with egocentrism , narcissism, selfishness or that type of behavior in which it deprives individual desire over the welfare of the mass.

See also: Globalization.

Individualism and collectivism

Individualism and collectivism are opposite doctrines .While the first defends individual freedoms and free existence as the goal to be achieved, the second advocates social responsibility, consciousness community and the preposition of community needs to the wishes of the individual.

Philosophical doctrines such as freethinking, ethical egoism (or moral egoism), or objectivism are the product of the juncture of individualism and capitalism (in what has been called economic individualism), and are to some extent heirs of liberalism bourgeois of the Modern Era.

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

Individualism in today's society

Contemporary society is often debated 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 was noted towards individualism 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 and economy of the contemporary world.

However, collectivist projects tend to reappear, as happened in Latin America in the decade marked by progressive and populist governments such as Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Cristina Fernandez 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.