Individualism Our Future?

There are more than 300 different isms in this world. Each one represents a philosophical, political or moral doctrine or a belief system. One of them is individualism. Usually any typical ism limits or suppresses humankind deployment and leaves a negative impact on human society. But individualism is completely different. This is something that everyone should be familiar with to choose for his or her personal development. One can find many definitions of individualism. Some are vey complex such as it is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. This complexity is not necessary. Mahatma Gandhi put it in a simple but yet powerful way - “A man is but the product of his thought, what he thinks, he becomes”.

Individualism was successful driving part of our society progress for many last decades, but got a lot critiques nowadays from many sides of our society. Will it last in our future world or we will find something better to replace it? Looking at the principles of individualism, its history and present state we can predict its undividable part from our society and will be its primary moving force to twenty first century.

Main foundation of individualism relies on pursuit of individuals 's goals and dreams, personal independence, self-reliance and thesis that interests of the individual should be above the interest of the state or a social group. Pursuit of individuals 's goals and dreams can be explained by a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” You can pursue whatever makes you happy, as long as you do not bother other people or break the law. The Declaration of Independ...

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...But the truth is that risk-taking, dependence on your own, and self-asserting individual, is a part of western society.

Current state of our world is very challenging and competitive. Every country chooses its own to the future. Some countries that are stuck with old collectivistic approach have slowed down there pace and are losing the competition. Western world counties choose another way, which is based on individualism. As being a part of this world, the Canadian culture very much values the role of the individual. We feel we have a right to our individuality we are measured on our personal merits. As we can see the intrinsic characteristics of individualism has been already a key for much of our entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity. But its role will be more important as we transform into highly technological, multicultural and open-minded society.