Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Emerson is a younger, higher-end
> version of our contemporary capitalist pseudo-individuality, but
> they're closer than distant cousins.
What would be a real (non-pseudo) individuality?
The OED entries for the various forms (individual [n], individualism, individuality) are quite fascinating but undecisive and too long to copy over in a post. Below are a couple headings from "individuality." I like the quote from Johnson, bewailing having nothing but (on a given occasion) his own individuality. It is also interesting that the earliest given use of "individual" as the source of action comes from that gospel of modern conservatism, Edmund Burke on the Fr. revolution.
Carrol
b. The action or position of the individual members of a society. 1796 BURKE Regic. Peace ii. Wks. VIII. 253 To them the will, the wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals is as nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The state is all in all.
3. The aggregate of properties peculiar to an individual; the sum of the attributes which distinguish an object from others of the same kind; individual character. b. Idiosyncrasy; strongly marked individual character. 1792 M. WOLLSTONECRAFT Rights Wom. iv. 151 The spring-tide of life over, we look for soberer sense in the face;..expecting to see individuality of character.
4. a. An individual thing. b. An individual personality. 1775 JOHNSON Lett. to Mrs. Thrale 26 July, Here sit poor I, with nothing but my own solitary individuality.