We explain what individualism is and what the different meanings it has are. Also, its differences with collectivism.
What is individualism?
Individualism is a political, moral and philosophical trend whose supreme values are the autonomy and self-sufficiency of the individual in society, emphasizing their “moral dignity” in the face of any attempt at intervention by the State or any other institution in their personal decisions and options.
individualism pursues the total liberation of the individual and that is why it places it at the center of its interests, since human rights and individual freedoms are its main bastions. Many political and social movements draw on the current of individualism (such as liberalism, existentialism and individualist anarchism), opposed to doctrines influenced by collectivism (communism, socialism, anarcho-syndicalism, etc.).
This current comes from individual salvation proposed by the Christian religion during the Middle Ages, but it was drastically modified by the prevailing ideology during the Industrial Revolution, so it became another component of the way of seeing the world proposed by capitalism.
Other meanings
Individualism is also understood as the tendency in artistic and bohemian fields to contravene established traditions and opt for self-creation and personal experimentation, distancing oneself from popular or mass opinions.
And in everyday or popular language, it can be used as synonym of egocentrism narcissism, selfishness or that type of behavior in which individual desire prevails over the well-being 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 objective to be achieved, the second advocates social responsibility, community consciousness and putting the needs of the community before the desires of the individual.
Philosophical doctrines such as freethought, ethical egoism (or moral egoism), or objectivism are the product of the union of individualism and capitalism (in what has been called economic individualism), and are to a certain extent heirs of the bourgeois liberalism of the Modern Era.
From collectivism, these doctrines are considered the product of a non-altruistic society, focused on selfishness and individual benefits instead of the common well-being.
Individualism in today's society
Contemporary society is often torn between collectivism and individualism as its two contrary and possible tendencies. During the close of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, a marked trend towards individualism was noted 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 economics in 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 that of Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina), Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) , Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador). For some, however, the balance is not very favorable (especially in the Venezuelan case) and this led to a new return to capitalist individualism in the region.