The Value Of Individualism In America

YiQing Ruan
Socy 201
11/19/2013

The Negativity of Excessive Emphasized Individualism In America Individualism is an ideal that most people have aspired to in America. The word itself has a very positive meaning in American cultures. Individualism is something that defines the United States; it is something that makes the United States unique compared to other countries; It is something positive, something good, something most people would want to obtain. Most Americans tend to over encourage the value of individuality. However, over emphasis and encouragement of individualism could lead to many deviant behaviors. That could eventually cause problems in the function and growth of the society. What is individualism? Using
Mainly because individualism plays a huge part in the history of the U.S. When the colonies were sent from Britain to this unknown land, they were treated with little to no respect; instead of heroes that discovered new land, they were more like guinea pigs, to test and die for the royals. As American fought for their rights and independence, the idea of making yourself free of controls and being able to do whatever you want without other people suppressing you became the most important cultural value to America. Even though these values might have changed throughout history, but the main idea is still remaining the same. That is the reason why phrases like “It’s a free country…” ,“I have the right!” are most used among
And by just briefly looking over a presidential timeline, many people would notice that there is this rotation between political parties. (6) Most people think this is a great concept, because of the mind set of individuality, where everyone is a unique person, and everyone should be able to get a term in the office, because it is a person's right. Many people think that helps the opposite party to check and balance the other party. But I beg the differ. The only reason that concept of rotation of political parties is good, is based on the foundation that there are two or more political parties that is dominating the current government. While Republican and Democrats have totally different views. It seems that of each presidency, a president always has to clean up the mess for the previous term. George W. Bush and Barack Obama are a perfect example. But by having that process of cleaning up, and fixing issues, it costs time, money and effort to do so. If there was no excessive emphasis on individualism, where people are not always worried about their own position, their own party, where there is no political party system that will always oppose each other, instead work together as a whole team. I believe by then, the system itself will be much