American Individualism, some thoughts

[[American Individualism]] has led to our entrepreneur obsession, and is going to make life very hard for the rapidly growing 70+ population.

Entrepreneurship is the hottest buzzword out right now. Startups and side hustles are as sexy as it gets. There's no better way to control your whole life. I think a large reason entrepreneurship is now so sought after is because of how individualistic Americans are, in combination with how desperate many people are to get out of their current work situation. Starting your own company seems like the perfect solution. Get out of a shitty job and be your own boss. I don't think there is anything wrong with this, but it does seem like there should be more options.

This Quora Thread has some thoughtful answer as to why America has become so individualistic.

  • The explanation that's easy to romanticize is "it's in our blood." Our ancestors were the ones that were willing to conquer new frontiers! They needed to handle themselves. I like this idea as well, but am skeptical.
  • "Remember also that collectivism / socialism was popular in France / Italy, mostly Catholic countries."
    • This point is interesting in that it follows along nicely with the idea that we may be so individualistic precisely because we have so many different cultures. Each one of us feels pressure to express ourselves so not to get drowned out by the others in the melting pot

This led me to [[high context cultures]] vs [[low context cultures]] Wikipedia article

  • America is low-context. Low context people are more direct, and the emphasis of communication is in the concrete words, less on connotation, body language, and other gestures.
  • [[India]] [[Taiwan]] are high-context. High context people gain more information from gestures, body language, and culture specific connotations of words
    • interesting idea: high context cultures are more focused on culture/community, as opposed to the individual, so there is a higher level of understanding of background from person to person. In that environment, they are able to gain much more info through less direct, more subtle means, because they share much more background and context
      • This is why collectivism/socialism was popular in France/Italy, mostly Catholic countries. The people in those countries shared so much background and context they were much more willing to emphasize the group instead of the individual.

[[American Individualism]] has led to obsessions with people like [[Jack Dorsey]] [[Elon Musk]]

  • Superhuman illusion

Recent experiences with my grandmother getting older also made me pay more attention to the [[American Individualism]] obsession. As we get older, we slowly become more dependent. In a more community focused environment, people are much more accepting of help from others. In an individual focused environment, people get embarrassed, upset, and frustrated when they can't operate their lives entirely on their own.

  • We are dependent on thousands of others, everyday, just to get our food at the grocery store. But we hate to ask for money from our parents, or time from our friends. It's an unhealthy contradiction

Startup obsession is the culmination of a culture that wants to "remove all dependencies" in a world that makes us more and more dependent on each other by the day. Our generation's obsession with the individual has terrible potential for great struggles in old age as we are eventually forced to accept help from our children and caretakers.



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