individualism

I do not think that the outlook for America is as depressing as this quote portrays it to be. I think that Habits of the Heart, in its entirety, did not seem to paint such a grim picture, because they identified such trends that they saw as problematic and then they showed that there is still hope for our society as a whole by the conclusion.

Nonetheless, I do think that modern individualism is not "socially viable" because increasingly people are learning to become more selfish in the materialistic society that we have, and working in their jobs to make others look bad (Bellah et. al., p. 144). People are constantly worrying how they can obtain their self- interests above others, and such trends as husbands or wives working later at the office to earn more money so that with this money they are able to flaunt their wealth over others is seen. There is so much needless opulence in the world and the sad part is that people are drawn to it out of their own greed. Therefore, individualism is pushing people away from others so that the individual can succeed, and thus it creates a less "socially viable" country (Bellah et. al., p. 1440).

People's interests are conflicting now more than ever and relationships become constrained. In this way, modern individualism is also not "individually... viable" because when one is unable to form close relationships with others and is forced to live alone, happiness is halted and people are unable to thrive. It is through relationships with others that we learn the most about ourselves, and yet if we are only looking out for ourselves, how can we ever expect to have even a friendship? People's tendencies to become increasingly interested in pursuing their self- interests is going to be detrimental to not only their own selves and happiness, but also to society as a whole. We cannot forget where we came from and relationships should not be forced to face such constant strains that individualism creates.

However, I disagree with the authors of Habits of the Heart, when they state that a "return to traditional forms would be to return to intolerable discrimination and oppression," (Bellah et. al., p. 144). I do not think that people would revert to such extreme measures again if we were to go back to the individualism that was emphasized in the past, but I also do not think that it is possible to even go back to the old ideals of individualism. Society is shaped by many forces and technology plays a very important role. The advent of technologies like cell phones and computers allowed for people to become more self- reliant because if they needed someone they knew they could call them but they did not have to stay in constant contact with them to find out where they were; computers allowed people to search for information on their own and complete tasks on a more individual level, too.

Since we cannot remove these technologies from our current state of society because so much is based around them, we must, instead, find ways to use these advancements to stress ways in which individualism will promote progress for society as a whole, and not think about ways in which we can go back to the old individualistic ways since that is not even a possibility.