Personal Worldly Bubbles

An individual is someone who thinks for his or herself. This means that their ideas are their own, they may listen to outside opinions and thoughts, but in the end, the opinions that that individual creates are crafted in an independent way free of outer influences. In other words, an individual's thoughts are produced by that person itself, their beliefs or ideas are not forced upon them. Some may argue that there are certain thoughts that may have not been thought of "independently". For example, religion, some people that consider themselves independent individuals may have had their religion since birth. However, those who are of free-will accept that they have a choice over their beliefs, just because one was handed-down a belief does not mean that they cannot question or re-assert themselves later on in life.

So why is being an individual not socially viable? For one, being an individual could mean wanting to live in your own "personal worldly bubble". This means that as people become individuals, they could tend to become less receptive of other people's opinions or thoughts, therefore becoming less receptive of others and withdrawing themselves from a community of people. A withdrawn individual is created.

But what is even worse than being a withdrawn individual? Living in traditional forms. Traditional forms could mean completely submerging oneself in a community, risking one's sense of independence and individualism. People could begin to think alike, with less variation and being in danger of becoming close-minded. So is community a bad thing? I think there has to be a balance between being your own person and belonging. You can't completely live in your own atmosphere because then you interact and impact others less, but you can't live completely with others because then one runs the risk of losing individuality and independence (and this is not a good thing).

Hope this makes sense. Maybe this is what Bellah meant or not, either way, anyone can make his or her own inferences, correct?