Individualism and the gone individual – a wild market tale

The irony with capitalism is that in it, it’s not the individual that’s important, as it proclaims, but individualism. The individual itself is really worthless as such.

Individuals have importance as human beings. Human beings are valued in societies. They depend on each other and on their cooperation and assistance. The whole of human progress has depended upon this human (among other species) trait – cooperation and assistance. We came so far, by coming together; forming societies, building upon each other. Human life progressively increased in value, the person became important.

In markets their worth is limited to their consumption (at best) and (mainly) to their financial value production capacity. Beyond that, the individual is irrelevant. Individualism, however, is important. In that it keeps individuals disconnected, thus society weaker, thus progressively less investment is demanded for the common good and more is directed towards “the market/s”. Which comprise a small minority of people benefiting from them at the expense of most individuals, sustaining the illusion in the disillusioned mass, that individualism is the ladder that takes the individual higher than the rest; and higher than the rest is what is really important. Being well, doing well, in a society of individuals who prosper collectively, is not seen as success, is not desirable; it’s the distance from the rest that matters. Yet, in such a system, most individuals are reduced to “the rest” and become expendable. Not persons anymore, but means. And there capitalism achieves the paradox; from a market serving the people for the well-being of the human beings, human beings are reduced to units – not individuals – to serve a market. From market as means, to humans as means. Stripped of their value as individuals through individualism..