The "Social Individualism" Solution

I have been arguing for some time that liberalism is dying.  I have written about this in my columns; I have explained why in greater specificity in my book Post-Liberalism: The Death of a Dream.  I have not, however, presented a viable alternative; at least, not in sufficient detail.  This column is dedicated to beginning this process.

Liberalism is clearly falling apart.  The debris of failed governmental programs and the conflicts inherent in political fraud surround us.  Unless we find an alternative, violence and tyranny will soon beset us.  The question is what can we do that provides social justice, while maintaining our freedom and prosperity?

Old-time conservatism will not do.  Laissez-faire capitalism has been found wanting.  By concentrating wealth in a few hands, it endangered the wellbeing of millions.  Its focus on greed and economics also underestimated our need for love and steadfast families.

Nor will old-time religion do.  It cannot provide us with the scientific advances necessary to sustain a mass techno-commercial society.  Besides, its dependence on faith ensures the persistence of countervailing beliefs that cannot be reconciled.

We plainly need something different; something new.  There has to be a way to organize our civilization that protects our rights, while providing an opportunity for political, economic, and personal progress.  I submit that that form of organization is “social individualism.”

Yes, I know that this sounds like an oxymoron.  Isn’t there a contradiction between being social and individualistic?  How can we be both for ourselves, but also for others?  The fact is that there is a tension between these two; a tension but not a logical inconsistency.

The Rabbi Hillel put this difficulty well two millennia ago.  He asked, “If I am not for myself, who will be?  And if not now, then when?  But if I am only for myself, what am I?”

We can be for ourselves and others.  We just need to know how.  In fact, we cannot be for ourselves, if we do not know how to deal with other humans.  We are social creatures.  We have individual brains and personal feelings, but these, of necessity, function within a social context.

As social individualists, we must therefore make private choices that mesh with the private choices of many others.  We are not monads, entirely separate from our fellows.  But neither are we ants bound together by rigid genetic mechanisms.

What is more, our need to make good personal choices has been amplified by our prosperity.  With so many more options now available to us, it is easy to go off on tangents that produce grave injuries.  Indeed, the effects of bad decisions, such as chemical addiction and ideological warfare, currently besiege us.

Nevertheless, making good decisions entails three prerequisites.  First, we must be realistic.  We need to understand our personal and social abilities, as well as our limitations.  If we are trapped in utopian fantasies, as is the case with liberalism, we are doomed to fail.

Second, we must be emotionally mature.  We have to be grown-ups who can deal with our fears and stresses.  We must also be able to cope with love, sadness, and anger.  These biologically constrained passions need to be tamed so that they generate sensible conclusions.  If not, we can expect a host of unintended and unwelcome consequences.

Third, we must be principled.  We need shared social standards, lest our conflicts get out of hand.  We must internalize these, but also enforce them.  As I have previously contended, these have to include honesty, personal responsibility, fairness defined as universality, liberty, and family values.  Without these, we are destined for a Hobbesian war of all against all.

These preconditions are, to be sure, difficult to implement.  We humans are frail beings who are easily led astray by our desires and social pressures.  Indeed, perfection is unattainable.  This being so, no form of social organization will completely solve the problem of living together in contented harmony.

Even so, social individualism can bring us closer to what is needed.  It can free us from the toxic fantasies, at present, tearing us apart.  By being truthful about the challenges we face and aiming at what is achievable, it can bring about the progress to which so many of us aspire.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University