One of the biggest myths or canards the left likes to peddle is the notion that Western culture is suffering from a surfeit of individualism. This is to pay the culture a compliment it most definitely does not deserve.Would that it were true. It conflates individualism with consumerism and hedonism and the misplaced accusation is nothing but a pretext to argue for yet more state domination of citizen's private lives and erosion of liberty. The word selfish usually accompanies the anti individualism charge which again is the conflation of subjectivist feelings with individualism. This false meme is a cover to conceal the true nature of what animates the culture which is nothing more than a faux individualism oriented around consumerism which is not the essential aspect of human existence.Man may be free to consume but he is severely hampered in his freedom to produce and enjoy the fruits of his production.
The Left is correct however in identifying the greatest threat to it which is individualism in its truest sense for if individual rights were ever to trump its much revered collective rights that would be the end of leftism so it must perforce attack individualism though it be a patent chimera and bogeyman as the chief characteristic of modern culture is a prevailing and oppressive morribund collectivism that is reflected in all its institutions, politics and ideology.
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