{"id":17453,"date":"2020-11-04T00:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T04:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=17453"},"modified":"2020-11-13T17:15:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T21:15:49","slug":"the-myth-of-individualism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of Individualism: Society is in Control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the myth of individualism? How does the individual perspective prevent people from seeing the realities of society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The myth of individualism is the mistaken belief that everything we get is earned. Understanding societal prejudices, privileges, and luck challenges this myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about the myth of individualism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Myth of Individualism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The belief in individualism is a central part of American ideology.<strong> <\/strong>It is the belief that individuals have full agency to shape the outcomes in their lives. According to the myth of individualism, no one faces any barriers on the way to achievement that are not of their own making.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Individualism is a comforting and validating belief\u2014for white people, who sit atop the nation\u2019s economic and political power structures. <\/strong>It tells them that their success and advantages in life are entirely the result of their own hard work, intelligence, and initiative.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But individualism sends a very different message to people of color. If powerful and successful people are powerful and successful because of their own merits as individuals, then it can only follow that <em>powerless <\/em>and <em>unsuccessful <\/em>people are in that condition because they are somehow \u201clesser\u201d individuals. By its very nature, a belief in individualism renders one incapable of acknowledging the structural power disparities within society that lead to inequitable outcomes for different groups.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>No One Is Objective<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>White beliefs in objectivity are closely related to the myth of individualism. Because white people believe that they are unique individuals unshaped by history or society, they also come to believe that their views of the world are entirely objective. If you don\u2019t believe you\u2019re conditioned by society or any other external forces, you can\u2019t accept the reality of your own biases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Being asked to confront one\u2019s actions and beliefs as racist can be deeply upsetting to white people, because it punctures their myth of objectivity. <\/strong>It suggests that one does <em>not <\/em>have complete autonomy over how one thinks and acts\u2014but, rather, that one ventures out into the world profoundly shaped by forces beyond one\u2019s control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the myth of individualism? How does the individual perspective prevent people from seeing the realities of society? The myth of individualism is the mistaken belief that everything we get is earned. Understanding societal prejudices, privileges, and luck challenges this myth. Read more about the myth of individualism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43,24],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-17453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","category-society","tag-white-fragility","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Myth of Individualism: Society is in Control - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You might think that you determine what happens to you. But that&#039;s the myth of individualism. Society&#039;s prejudices can change things for you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Myth of Individualism: Society is in Control\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You might think that you determine what happens to you. But that&#039;s the myth of individualism. Society&#039;s prejudices can change things for you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-04T04:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-13T21:15:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-individualism.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"The Myth of Individualism: Society is in Control\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-04T04:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-13T21:15:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/\"},\"wordCount\":358,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-individualism.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"White Fragility\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Self-Improvement\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/\",\"name\":\"The Myth of Individualism: Society is in Control - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-individualism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-individualism.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-04T04:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-13T21:15:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"You might think that you determine what happens to you. 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