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The Root of the Problem [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-20
Today, I was going to write about the Middle Ground Fallacy. I had everything I wanted to say worked out in my head. There was even another new community post I saw this morning I was going to incorporate. I even had a great title, “Democrats and the Art of Middling Themselves Into Oblivion.” Sounds awesome, I thought. Everything was lining up.
Then, I read this HuffPost article, Judge Blasts Trump DOJ for Transgender Executive Order | HuffPost Latest News, and this DK article Trump-loving farmers suffer the consequences of their support. The former is about a federal judge questioning a DOJ attorney about whether transgender discrimination exists. The latter is about farmers voting for Trump. The second article has a lot to unpack and many good points (I agree about the fences, why am I paying for this?), but what grabbed my attention was a statement about people bringing themselves up by their bootstraps.
These articles made me think about the US’s loss of courage through the growth of toxic individualism. I strongly believe in the Cardinal Virtues – Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Courage. I also hold sacred the US’s ideal of individualism (or at least what it used to be). It's even in our motto, “E Pluribus Unum.” (Hey, Hegseth, so you know, I got it on the first try.)
“Courage” can be a loaded word. It means one’s ability to face their fears by taking action, not aggression or seeking conflict. It is not bravery (facing danger) or eliminating fear; rather, it is accepting fear and pushing through it. As Thomas Aquinas concluded in Summa Theologica, "The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them." For me, courage is the ability to do the right thing even when the path is uncertain or the outcomes are difficult.
“Toxic Individualism,” although not precisely defined, is taking self-reliance and individual freedom to an extreme such that a person disregards other’s well-being, social responsibilities, and the overall needs of the group of which they are a part, including families, states, nationalities, or other groups. Several current and past writers have written about it. Alexis de Tocqueville warned against the excesses of individualism in his book Democracy in America. More recently, Robert Putnam wrote about how the decline of community engagement is changing the US (Bowling Alone) and the historic patterns of what he calls the “I-We-I Curve” (The Upswing). (Putnam is a great author, and I found The Upswing somewhat encouraging in these dark times. If you need a little jolt of optimism, take a read). Examples of Toxic Individualism are attitudes toward masking and vaccines, assuming everyone is equal, the existence of meritocracy, and Gordon Gecko (“Greed, for lack of a better term, is good.”)
By now you’re probably asking yourself, what does an article on a federal judge ripping a new one to a DOJ lawyer and bootstrapping farmers have to do with courage and toxic individualism? I believe the players in each article represent what is right and wrong in the US today. A lack of what I will call “Courageous Individualism,” which, in my opinion, is a founding principle of this country. (I’m not sure if this term has ever been used previously or defined by someone else, which can very well be the case. If so, I apologize and will provide attribution, correction, etc.). By Courageous Individualism, I mean valuing personal agency and, at the same time, recognizing moral and social responsibilities to others.
It is the guiding principle on which the country is based. The Revolutionary War and Civil War were fought not only to allow people to think and act freely but also because of a moral responsibility to others to free them from oppression and slavery. The opening lines of the Constitution instill the idea of Courageous Individualism:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
There is no “I,” it recognizes “We, the People” are working for a better society for all. Thoreau and Emerson promoted this idea in their works - moral integrity and fighting injustice. The Declaration of Independence openly recognized the importance of autonomy and self-determination based on moral responsibilities. And, for any Christians out there, think of the parable of the Good Samaritan and read the beatitudes, then answer the question on your “WWJD” bracelet.
In the HP article, the federal judge showed courageous individualism by recognizing current and historical injuries and the immorality of erasing a group of people. On the other hand, the DOJ attorney didn’t see why wiping people from existence may be an important matter. This is an utter inability to see or take moral responsibility. Likewise, the farmers in the second article illustrated their inability to recognize how they benefitted from others' exercise of moral responsibility and failure to be accountable for their actions, which takes courage.
One of the best examples of a lack of courageous individualism and the conceit of toxic individualism is the old “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” colloquialism referenced in the DK article. That one phrase encompasses a lot, starting with the idea that anyone can “succeed” or bring themselves out of poverty without help from anyone else. It just takes hard work, right? Wrong. While hard work is part of the equation, it can never be achieved without the help of others, either directly or indirectly, whether the help comes from family, friends, neighbors, teachers, or even government grants. To the farmers in the article, yes, it’s hard work to run a farm and I understand the plight, but you can only run your farm because of others who help, including me, the taxpayer. (I pay taxes to help others and to build a better society, not just for my own benefit.)
Now, a lot of you are probably thinking this accurately reflects people on the Right and only they suffer from toxic individualism. WRONG (he says in the voice of Dana Carvey’s McLaughlin Group skit. That one aged me). It persists throughout our society, including the person I see in the mirror when I am brave (courageous?) enough to look. Think about how many of us see a daily injustice and tell ourselves (or post on social media) that it’s wrong but do nothing else. Think about how proud we are and how much we are bettering our country while we sit as keyboard warriors railing against wrongs others commit. (This does not include this guy - TheOneProtester.). Toxic individualism also includes what most of us exercise daily – indifference and apathy. Courageous Individualism takes work, hard work, really hard work. Toxic Individualism doesn’t. We as humans are naturally inclined to take the easy route.
Finally, before anyone takes me to task in the comments about how the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc. didn’t apply to women, Native Americans, slaves, and anyone else who wasn’t a white, property-holding male, you’re right. It shouldn’t, however, stop us from recognizing the goodness of our ideals. “We, the People” really f*&@ things up and probably have gotten more wrong than we’ve gotten right. But, for me, that’s part of the American spirit, recognizing where and who we failed, why we got it wrong, and striving to get it right the next time. Doing that takes courageous individualism.
Thanks for allowing me to get on my soapbox and sorry for the preachiness. Because I don’t do social media, I’ve turned this into my daily dose of validation. So I really appreciate you taking the time to read this.
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