There is only one kind of person that makes an appropriate individual; the rest of us must be formed into societies. But modernity loves the awful individual, who makes the best consumer and the most manageable citizen – especially for overreaching governments. The awful individual is the aspirational persona in the modern world.
The awful individual is willing to sever social ties for the sake of personal happiness, even the sacred vow of marriage. She will leave behind the children she nursed if she needs to find herself. He will abandon the wife of his youth in a vain attempt to recapture his own youth. He is unencumbered with the complexity of mixed motivation, for his desires live in a self-imposed vacuum that doesn’t take the desires and even needs of others into account. As such, the awful individual is the perfectly predictable subject for all things algorithmic.
The world has baptized this behavior in the pseudo-scientific terminology of self-actualized heroism. Bravery looks strangely like the abandonment of natural social ties. Fierce looks suspiciously like an insensibility to the feelings of others. Vision may be justifiably mistaken for the abandonment of responsibility. But the crescendoing soundtrack behind all of these stories leaves us in no doubt that these individuals that have managed to sacrifice so much, although it tends to be the sacrifice of others, is the protagonist of the tale. Think 99 out of every 100 movies made in this century.
The invasive State idealizes the awful individual, whose allegiance can be bought with legalized weed, ubiquitous pornography, and the promise of student loans forgiven. Which is especially attractive because said loan did not accomplish the purpose of acquiring any meaningful knowledge or skills that could contribute to any productive part of society – as long as it is understood than neither HR nor DEI nor any other department whose job it is to bully people into meaningless politically correct behavior contributes to productivity. The State is more than happy to raise children from birth in the laboratory of child care facilities, which are only getting bigger and cleaner and brighter thanks to relentless taxation, and then usher them into death at the nursing home.
The developer relies on the awful individual, for how many dwelling units would really be needed if people shared living spaces? Divorce multiplies the number of dwelling units needed, and even large families can be included in the profit if it becomes understood that every child needs his own bedroom. But the real money comes through the retirees, who may have a handful of grandkids floating around, but not enough to ground them. The new retirement community for those with a large enough 401k is like a cruise ship: on-site theatres and hair salons and social clubs and eclectic dining that render an offsite visit unnecessary.
The church has adapted to the awful individual, whose personal preferences must not be intruded upon under any circumstance, and whose personal truth must not be challenged in any way, and whose narrative must not be deprived of appropriate levels of victimhood and heroism. A classic mall look with a coffee shop and a gym preach that the church exists to make you the best version of you that you can be. God enters the picture somewhere, sometimes smuggled in surreptitiously and sometimes as the genie whose lamp you have been rubbing via the Jesus love songs that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But there is no bonding agent. No blessed tie that binds. Just the spiritual high of a great band and a great sermon. The individual is left undisturbed in the darkness of the auditorium, where light is only necessary for entering and exiting.
So who is that rare person who is appropriate as an individual? A baby. A baby is, on the one hand, utterly dependent on everyone else, yet at another level she is pure individual. A baby doesn’t care about the sleep schedule of his mom or dad, or the mess he is making with his food, or the countless ways in which he inconveniences those around him. But we forgive this, because he is a baby. We know that one day, we will socialize this awful individual. We will teach her the value of good citizenship, and familial loyalty, and sacrificial membership at a local church. We tolerate the baby’s self centeredness because we know that one day she will not be an awful individual anymore. Imagine a world where that baby remains an awful individual…you won’t have to try hard.
Nathan Writes 