i’m stuck on whether or not societal eudaimonia is achievable in a culture as hyper-individualistic as ours, and also in awe because your writing is so so good
I think the trick is that, when you have a huge national culture, then paradoxically, you'll get individualism, because messaging will only go from the center, to the individual. Those are the only two "nodes." There's a long-standing argument that totalitarian governmnents naturally want to strip away everything in society that isn't either the individual, or the government. Church, associations, the family, these can be rivals. Orwell's 1984 does this well.
But, I'm not so sure we're as hyper-individualistic as we think, especially within communities who are well-off and well-educated (people in these segments have more friends, more associations, and more social activities).
Americans are actually still pretty good at this. Historically, we're an associationally people; we make groups and solve problems. Social media is corrosive and undermining of this tradition, but it's by no means irrecoverable.
Give people thick webs and layered communities, and they'll do ok.
i’m stuck on whether or not societal eudaimonia is achievable in a culture as hyper-individualistic as ours, and also in awe because your writing is so so good
Not necessarily. It needs to be honed and cultivated. Takes a lot of work to produce small platoons in civil society.
I think the trick is that, when you have a huge national culture, then paradoxically, you'll get individualism, because messaging will only go from the center, to the individual. Those are the only two "nodes." There's a long-standing argument that totalitarian governmnents naturally want to strip away everything in society that isn't either the individual, or the government. Church, associations, the family, these can be rivals. Orwell's 1984 does this well.
But, I'm not so sure we're as hyper-individualistic as we think, especially within communities who are well-off and well-educated (people in these segments have more friends, more associations, and more social activities).
Americans are actually still pretty good at this. Historically, we're an associationally people; we make groups and solve problems. Social media is corrosive and undermining of this tradition, but it's by no means irrecoverable.
Give people thick webs and layered communities, and they'll do ok.
do you think that this will come to pass naturally (self-centeredness just breeding out after falling into isolation from community?)