Survivor!

[Jacob Segal]

>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

Surely the idea of "natural rights" has been a popular one throughout U.S
history, including both elite and the masses and suggesting something of a
individualistic frame of mind.  If one examines the civic republican
interpretation of US history you find an interesting interrelationship of
social solidarity and individualistic notions, with usually contradictory
results.

Jacob Segal