My uncle
“being yourself” has become one of the most popular concepts of the moment。
This idea, rooted in individualism, fully confirms the existence of “me”, and allows us to begin to face our desires and feelings and to give us great freedom and freedom. But it is hard to say that we can find our own worth and meaning in life by being ourselves。
What is the real “self”? Can a “self” exist out of relationship and out of life
The ambiguity of this kernel makes it a paradox not only to be successful and complete in fulfilling its commitments, but also to become a source of self-consumption and loss of meaning。
The more we are “do ourselves”, the easier it is to move towards an atomized state of existence. The prevailing sense of loneliness, value anxiety and lack of meaning are more or less related to the prevalence of this concept。
In the book "death of greed: politics after individualism", paul collier and john kay believe that this “all is about me”, misreading human nature and threatening the prosperity of society。
They believe that it is only in true relationships and living together that we can affirm our values, meanings and existence, and that full human connection is the foundation upon which society can be sustained。
At a time when individualist thinking prevails, community reintegration is more urgent than moving towards self-determination。
The following is taken from greed dead: politics after individualism
Paul collier, john kay
01
It's all about me
The extreme individualism that has been espoused in recent decades by a number of distinguished and successful individuals, in the name of merit and fame, has become intellectually untenable。
Human beings are born to be pro-social and display strong greed that is both uncomfortable and contagious. Whether it is the excessive pursuit of economic interests by businessmen, the idea of identity politics, or the rise of reality-show stars and cyberredes, there is a common core feature — everything about “me”. Some yearning for money and others for attention. And silicon valley's liberal will fantasy is based on similar selfish motives. It's all too much。
Obama's successor is an example of individualism. That post, once occupied by great statesmen like lincoln and roosevelt, has been occupied since 2017 by a man whose qualifications exist only in his own imagination. As head of state, he does not symbolize the dignity of a great nation like eisenhower, reagan or the british queen. For president trump, everything revolves around me。
Trump: an american dream
Trump became famous through the tv reality show. But at least he did build something (even if it didn't always cost money). This is not even possible: paris hilton, the kardashians, the assassins, and james charles, who need to be themselves。
There is a similar sense of moral superiority in universities, which stems from the perception of intellectual privilege inherent in the system of competence: “i am smart, so i am right.” those who are convinced of this are stubborn enough not to want to hear dissent, but also to try to suppress it. A fool doesn't deserve a rational discussion. They became fascists, homophobics, racists, who feared transgender people and denied climate change。
The media and public sector professionals share the same sense of moral superiority, although of different origin. As can be seen from the strong indignation in newspaper columns or protest rallies, for many, emotional strength is the measure of moral values: we are right, because we are better, and we will seize every opportunity to tell you that。
This ugly arrogance, which denigrates collective superiority, is the product of an extreme elite individualism that has dominated many modern political and cultural ideas. However, the more we know about human evolution, psychology, anthropology and the history of the development of our species — areas that modern human beings have studied enough — the clearer it will be that this individualism misconstrues the human basis on which human beings are based。
Human nature gives us a unique ability to interact and live in harmony. Most of us are not saints, but most of us are not sociopaths. In a complex modern world, we cannot prosper without a high degree of interdependence. More importantly, without such capacity, we will never create the kind of complexity that can achieve modernity。
A healthy society is a vast network maintained by mutual goodwill, a sense of duty and collaboration. Some interdependence exists among individuals, but most involve groups — companies, local governments, schools, communities and families. Most of these interactions are based on unwritten perceptions rather than clear legal constraints。
But the ability to establish and maintain such a network of relationships needs to be nurtured and nurtured, and it is precisely this relationship that is undermined by the excessive praise of individual interests and self by those who succeed。
02
Missing role: community
We do not regard the element of individualist ideology as inherently absurd. But when these ideas are pushed to the extreme, they push people to overemphasize themselves, their flaws become destructive, and they condensate societies into powerful individuals and duty-bound states. This both underestimates the central role of voluntary cooperation activities in socio-economic life and imposes an unbearable burden on states。
Individualism takes many different forms, each offering a unique path to self-realization, but it is about “i”. The first path is the singlest: through “me” consumption, which is in fact the economic model that has positioned us — we want to consume。
But for the majority of successful people, the embrace of power systems has long replaced consumption: through our own success we come from me. And now, the tide is confronted with new challenges stemming from the temptation of self-expression: i am unique
"the unbridled consumption"
Personalism, like all over-characterized products, looks great, but it's not like that. Let us now turn to the philosophy and science of correcting that ideology. They remind us of the absence of a key player in those extremely simplified ideas: communities。
Socialism has two related core ideas. First of all, we do not believe that human beings are selfish individuals committed to maximizing the benefits and well-being of the individual: the self-realization that people seek is largely accomplished through interaction with others, whether in the family, in the streets, in villages, at work, or through other forms of interaction。
We believe that moral, social and economic subjects are not non-individuals, i. E. States — societies are a network of individuals seeking self-realization through participation in the rich, interactive group activities of the network. Secondly, we would like to revisit the concept of “civil society”. This term is now commonly used to refer specifically to the activities of non-governmental organizations, while we have opted for its more pure and broader meaning。
Both views on human development prosperity and civil society were first articulated by aristotle. Human beings aim to be happy and lead a good life, so the measure of good and bad societies is their ability to create conditions that are commensurate with them: conditions for happiness and prosperity。
This is a very different measure from the overall maximization of the utility of rational selfish individuals of utilitarianism: self-realization means the achievement of virtue — honesty, courage, compassion, patience, fair trade。
But development and prosperity need balance and moderation, even when virtue is at stake: honesty does not mean that we have to tell our children the depth of their artistic or sports production; that too little patience is a weakness of character, too much is also; and that compassion is commendable, but as a virtue, it should be a tangible help to troubled neighbours, not an unrealistic global saviour like mrs. Jellyby。
There was no one-size-fits-all absolute norm in the world — unlike kant's insistence, he believed that the duty to speak the truth meant that it was necessary to inform a potential murderer of the whereabouts of the person he wanted to kill, or to do everything possible to ensure that convicted drug gangs were not deported, as was the case with modern human rights lawyers。
So is the path of socialism more likely to achieve self-fulfillment than the false promises of individualism? Adam smith described happiness as “loveful”. And “economists” are greedy, selfish, lazy unless they are properly motivated. Such people are not worthy of love, and there is no theoretical basis in modern psychology for such people to realize themselves。
The demand-level theory of the psychologist, abraham maslow, puts the economic need for survival at the very heart, and once these goals are achieved we will begin to seek a sense of belonging, respect and ultimately self-fulfilment。
It should be stressed that “self-fulfilment” does not refer to a self-portrait or other similar expression of identity on instagram. Maslow believes that only a very small number of people can “self-realize” because it means exploiting one's full potential and making one the best of himself。
03
Human relationships are almost everything
Martin seligman is a pioneer in happiness psychology. He concluded that “human relations are almost everything, though not everything”. This conclusion is not crude and echoes the thoughts of adam smith and aristotle. Freedom of will is meaningful only if it is placed in human relations。
Communities are often the most directly and closely connected to the local context. However, there are many other types of communities, such as religious denominations, sports clubs, reading societies, bird-watching clubs, alumni groups, etc. These originally luminous collectives have fallen down, causing robert patnan to lament in his book “single bowling”。
Civil society consists of associations with shared values and norms of behaviour. Adam ferguson, the philosopher of the scottish enlightenment movement, and adam smith, a generation with whom he interacted, published the history of civil society in 1767。
Manchester by the sea
The young ferguson was an accompanying pastor of the highland guards of scotland, an infantry force created to calm the jamesan rebellion and maintain law and order in the highlands of scotland. The name “blackguard” is to a large extent an indication of how it is perceived. Civil society at that time stood in opposition to a mandatory state military hierarchy。
When the modern man who is not familiar with adam smith speaks of him, he is the godfather of individualism, and the truth is the opposite: adam smith is not a humanist, but a socialist. In his major philosophical work, morality, he asked readers to use their compassionate imagination to try to look at things from the perspective of others and become “just bystanders”。
What is needed for impartiality is not indifference – i should be more attached to the children of my neighbours than to the distant bengali; impartiality requires that people should not be selfish, and in the eyes of john rolls, selfishness can disappear only if the individual is completely ignorant of his role in future societies。
The “just bystander” that smith refers to is different from the man behind the “window of ignorance” of rolls: the “just bystander” has a clear understanding of his role in society, but he does not emphasize “me”, and he emphasizes “we”。
Adam smith did not think that there was any contradiction between the views in the state rich and the ethics. Relations in the market are always people-to-people. Smee's never married and lives with his mother. The rest of the mother's housework would talk to the baker and butcher, while smith was very close to david humu, ferguson and the most distinguished intellectual group at the time in edinburgh。
In his world, we can pursue our own interests, mainly because we know ourselves better than anyone, and we know where our own interests lie; but the pursuit of individual interests must not be at the expense of others. Butchers are first one person, one with multiple obligations, and secondly, butchers。
Socialist ideas have thus emerged at the birth of economics. Unfortunately, after smee's death, one only remembered his view that the butcher was a businessman, and eventually advocated it as an “economist”, an image that smee himself would hate; and his view that the butcher was first and foremost a duty-bearer and that a good society should be emotionally harmonious was largely forgotten。
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We believe in the little red book, and we're at the b station
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"the book of ideals"
