Survivor!

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Mon Oct 23 07:49:40 PDT 2000


At 02:34 PM 10/23/00 +0000, Doug asked:
>>Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>>
>>>My impression is that individualism was a relatively marginal ideology
>>>until the government-sponsored explosion of the suburban sprawl in 1950s.
>>
>>Depends on what you mean by individualism? Ever read any of the 19th

I mean widely spread. No doubt, individualistic ideologies could be found among intellectual elites. But most immigrants to this country were anything but intellectual elites. In all likelihood, they were European or Asian peasants or workers whose "native" cultures strongly emphasized social solidarity ties. They never heard of Emerson or the Whigs - let alone consciously following their counsel. So if that ideology becames widely spread - we need to look for the vectors of that dissemination. Immaculate intellectual conception does not sound very convincing.

wojtek



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