Individualism
Individualism is a principle that addresses the worth of an individual with a robust moral stance to promote the independence and self-reliance of a person. Individualists are people who advocate for a person’s interests to gain relevance on political or social grounds. Notably, individualism is the opposite of collectivism and corporate social forms embraced in a society. The primary aspect of individuality is an individual and why an individual is essential in promoting human dignity. Individualism expands the logic of isolation among an individual who chooses to have their own beliefs and activities. Roman culture is one that strongly expressed the individualism approach in the world. In the Roman Empire, individualism is an honorific term that is a concern to many communities. Therefore, this paper explains individual characteristics and impacts on society.
The Principle of Individuality
Moreover, individualism promotes a sense of belonging and freedom of expression among an individual. Generally, individualism has been used to refer to individual characteristics, interests, and lifestyles to promote the self-creation of a person (Santos et al., 2017). The principle of individuality expresses how an individual is differentiated from other people since they have been separated from other things surrounding them due to their own goals and needs. Further, individuality has been described as a change process where a person’s limitations are transformed into personality builders through ambitions and active fantasy.
Individualism in Roman Culture
Among the countries that have embraced individualism is Japan, which values the people; the Romans’ lives have also been at the forefront of promoting individualism (Ogihara, 2018). Additionally, individuality is perceived as the main factor in accelerating human development since a person’s sober consciousness is critical in making room for change. Researchers have gone a mile further in developing theories that define individuality (Müller et al. 2018). Additionally, individual and collective characterisation shows that an individual should be considered more of an effect of individuation to a cause of representation.
That justifies why individuation is a continuous process that keeps recurring in new individuals as the year’s pass. Unlike collectivism, which differs in culture and definition, individualism furthers the interests of an individual. Romanticism was an art movement that expressed its rebellion against the Neo-classism of other eras. The countries that influenced the Romans to focus on individualism were their territorial neighbors’ in the Greek and Latin traditions. According to the Romans, individualism held a different position from the neo-classists, which gave an individual the supremacy of worth since they believe an individual represents God. The Roman society is against harm or sacrificing a human being, and to them, that is defined as delamination of a person’s value.
Furthermore, the Romans believe that a person’s value cannot be traded with other materialistic goods since they possess a divine connection. Under the Roman way of life, any individual is more representative in the community without generalising a group’s collectivity but of an individual concept (Hodgson, 2019). The romantic form of individuality enables them to express their thinking, which gives them a feeling of self-appreciation, unlike in other societies. In the Roman perspective, individualism enhances how a person is seen as an important figure with majestic abilities.
For the Romans, individualism showed the sacredness of an individual, the freedom an individual should possess, and human sovereignty. Roman culture was individualistic since it stressed much on a single person’s needs rather than the collective group, and the independence of an individual is prioritised. The Roman administration has played a massive role in putting up old standards. These standards have promoted individuals’ self-realisation, hence maintaining an individualistic culture. Embracing the individualistic culture has helped the Roman culture who have expanded their infrastructure and technology levels. The Roman civilisation has been promoting their personal goals, their infrastructure and technology levels. The Roman culture has allowed its people to be financially independent without depending on others to survive.
Social security is not a priority in the cultural setting of Romans because they are more of governing themselves. The main interests controlling the culture is individual interests; they disregard collective and societal interests. Some of the characteristics of the individualistic culture are that people are encouraged to remain strong, self-reliant and assertive towards promoting their personal goals. When a person is strong, that means they can take charge of their lives in various aspects; emotionally, socially and physically. Being assertive gives the person the ability to fight for their rights without causing trouble.
The individualistic culture stresses that a person needs to be assertive because they are rightfully allowed to stand their grounds and protect their well-being. An individual is encouraged to be self-reliant; they are made to believe that motivating oneself is the key to greatness. People in individualist cultures often want to stand out by daring to be different and get praises of uniqueness. Within these cultures, if an individual relies on another, they are considered a shameful figure to society (Müller et al. 2018). Admittedly, individualist cultures are high in those traits and mostly dominance, hostility and impulsiveness.
According to Simmel (1971), an individual is normally best understood not under the social category the quest to gain an individualistic culture has been the core problem to the growth of the world (Beecher & Bienvenu, 2018). Thus the primary difference between individualism and collectivism is that the individuals strive towards their own goals, whereas collective cultures favour the well-being of a group. Culture is one factor that affects how people think or behave. Individualism has great impacts on various aspects of development in the cultural setting. First, identity affects education since children are encouraged to read so that they would benefit from their results. For example, in America, education is perceived to be subject to helping children figure things out (Hoover & Nash, 2016). The main aim to study is to enhance knowledge and inventions, unlike on collective cultures which maintain that education should mould a child for the well-being of the society.
Further, Simmel talks about individuality in the German culture where parent to child relationship is highly regarded to extended families relationships (Müller et al. 2018). The German world is one that insists on self-realisation and encourages personal choices. Germans expect that each person should satisfy their own needs, and personal achievement is keenly assessed. As much as team work is allowed in the projects done, everyone is bound to their own opinions which must be respected. The economic growth of the community has gone high since the main focus is to develop personal abilities in a nuclear setting without extending to other locations. Here, children are introduced to a culture of self-worth, which subjects them to concentrate on their ambitions and self-improvement.
Countries like China embrace collectiveness culture. They believe that children need to learn more skills so that they can give back to society (Huang & Lu, 2017). Generally, individualist cultures accelerate the level of creativity among an individual, and that potential is levelled up till they grow older as a personal achievement. Second, individualism culture affects achievement. Most of personal success is considered an individual’s effort. That guarantees an individual of more success without evaluating the societal gains that are stressed by collectivism. On the contrary, the collective cultures demand that any achievement is used for the progress of society. That influences the career a person chooses, their abilities and social issues they prioritise.
Individualist culture perceives that a person should take care of their health. That can only be achieved through personal wellness, good eating habits and proper self-examination for an individual win. In individualistic cultures, it is upon a person to seek medical help on their charges. Still, for other cultures, there are specialists ready to offer their services to the people affected without pay. There have been reduced levels of mortality and depression in communities that provide social support to the sick through collectivism. Moreover, health is a crucial factor in the cultural setting that requires collaborative efforts to maintain better standards as perceived by collectivism cultures.
Notably, culture has had a great impact on the behaviour of an individual. People of individualist cultures have independence as their core focus. On the contrary, collective groups which rely on interdependency among themselves. Much of the praises are addressed to an individual since they believe they are the point of discussion, not anyone else. Most of the population in America used personal traits to describe themselves and to show their achievements (Hoover & Nash, 2016). Individualism positively affects the economic growth of society because of too much concentration on the personal development of each individual. Another factor that improves individualism is competition. It plays a role in defining people’s ambitions and interests, and every individual hope to maintain self-realisation.
The Latinos Traditions
As much as the Latin Americans have a variety of ethnic groups with different ancestries, they have gained heritage from the Roman Empire. Immigrants arrived in the Latin as from the 16th century where African slaves were brought to Latin America countries like Caribbean and Brazil. They are a heterogeneous group with a diverse population of occupants from Mexico, South and Central America. Today, they constitute the highest population of the in some countries like the Dominican Republic. Latin culture has greatly influenced the diversity of the occupants in areas of religion, music and political grounds. The highest number of Latinos are Christians, and that is similar to the Roman Empire, who officialised it in the year 380 (Müller et al. 2018). However, Latino traditions have embraced the aspect of collectivism, where they define themselves depending on social and cultural roles that promote interdependency between communities. Collectivism is believed to offer channels for communication and teamwork, which has been the contributing factor towards the growth of the Latinos traditions.
The Latinos culture and focus on communication has improved their levels of social systems and interpersonal relationships between people of different dignitaries but who embrace the same culture. Among the rules governing the culture is that they encourage people to work towards societal gains. Latinos often express their collectivism in how they relate with their parents and friends since to them; a family is an important structure for collaboration. As much as Latinos changed their origin to the American culture, they still maintained their collectivism to embrace the individualist culture. That has built cohesion and unity among the different cultures.
Collectivism among Latino traditions has improved communication among the communities. Communication has had effects on the cultural interactions since they improve upon creations of relationships. Communication has encouraged the growth of friendships due to face to face contacts that are often achieved during interactions. The Latino Culture focused on their social structure, and one has to sacrifice their ambitions for the betterment of the whole nation. Intercultural friendship patterns among Latinos and Americans may be a useful platform to show how cultural values affect communication. Unlike White Americans, Latinos have been known to seek help from their extended families nearby and also occupy the same place of residence as a family. Due to the bond among them, communication has been improved, and social relationships created. Latinos rarely share their information to people they have not developed relationships with; they focus on their family and communities they share with common interests (Müller et al. 2018). However, as much as Latinos portray high levels of collectivism, they also exhibit certain individualist traits.
Utilitarianism and Happiness
According to Mills (2000), utilitarianism is very vital for the viability of humans. He adopted this concept from the continuous expressions of Mr Galt on utilitarianism, who seems to be the inventor of the theory (Bailey, 2016). As a result, he emphasised on the idea as a way of eradicating the negative perception that onlookers or listeners of Gilt’s teachings developed on the theory. Therefore Mill’s sweat yielded by his actions is witnessed in the current world to have connected the idea of happiness and pleasure without pain.
Utilitarianism deals with actions that yield pleasure without pain in humans. But that does not mean that all activities are favourable and can only produce happiness. What about those that have pain as the output? As noted, more of the individuals are craving to make life to be at the optimum: yearning for a perfect life with continuous happiness. Therefore, the action of Mill in clarifying the theory of satisfaction and pleasure without pain is essential in nourishing the present. It also promotes the future life of individuals based on their actions.
There are stages in which a friendship grows among different cultures. First is how often these cultures contact each other daily. Whenever they come together, the level of intimacy is created, and the bond is extended. Generally, frequent contact of people sharing things and services tend to make room for friendship formation. Second, as observed from the Latino culture, people tend to relate better when they share common attitudes, opinions and values. That encourages the concept of appreciating each other and building up confidence and self-worth. Social support among the Latino culture has played a primary role in improving awareness against depression and illnesses that would affect an individual. Their collaboration in social matters gives individuals assurance of safety in case of an emergency.
David O. Brink (1999) believes that both love and friendship are factors that lead to a happy life. Friendships should be grounded based on mutual feelings and pleasures (Rohde, 2020). Further, he used the Greeks community to explore the role of love and friendship in the community. Their contribution towards love and friendship has promoted social and political growth. Eudamonism elaborates that if a person shows concern about another, that could be justified to be real if it makes the person happy (Rohde, 2020). Generally, an individual is one of the main pillars towards promoting love and friendship.
According to Epicureans (Rohde, 2020), in their theory of life, more of the individuals are concerned about how they can gain pleasure throughout their life. They tend to approach some of the issues they face from the environment as well as persona issues which may contribute to pain in their actions. Therefore, more study on human feelings makes it to the peak. It reveals that human emotions are different from animals’. As a result, actions can either ruin someone’s life or contribute to success. In addition to that, an action brought by the environment is very crucial when understanding the theory of life. As a result, accusers may spearhead the colourisation of someone’s life through their accuses. Moreover, their actions do not only yield pain but also reduce the level of someone’s carte blanche in terms of move. Consequently, lifespan is decreased as well as a drastic reduction of human light: no pleasure and only pain leads.
On the other hand, human beings vary in nature: mainly characters. Some of them are easily pleasured by action while the hard mind sways others as their normal adopted nature. Some people are not easily pleased, and they require strong measures which completely favours’ them all around. They don’t consider the other parties involved. Therefore, humans should possess low capacities of enjoyment. It will not only lead to a lesser complicated world of action but also reduce the effect that unhappiness contributes to human life. But still, human beings should be considered than any other creature in terms of satisfaction. As noted,” It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied” (Bailey, 2016). This is because more value is put on humans, as explained by the theory of life.
Concurrently, actions taken by human beings are regards as the mother of either happiness or pain. When they make hasty, unnecessary actions, weird results will be realised, and vice vasa. Therefore, morality is essential when making actions. Especially when human activity is formal and desirable, pleasure combined with happiness is the results as stated by the theory of life. But the honest effort can only be made by wise individuals: who considers the relevant and available factors which exist like the effect of a given action to others like, among others.
Apart from that, some objectors came out to contradict the existence of happiness, as stated by utility theory. They said that joy could not be attained in the current world. As noted, “Happiness is unattainable”. Therefore, when are people regarded as happy? According to their arguments, happiness cannot be felt in the whole journey of life but can be handled simultaneously or in the interval in someone’s life. So when someone is happy, it only counts at that time, but some future decisions must either reduce or increase the intensity of his/her happiness.
Concurrently, people may strive to reduce the multiple occurrences of pain and raises the event of joy. But absolutely, that cannot fully eradicate happiness as felt in the journey of life. So people should study the utility theory and the theory of life to understand the meaning of life. It will not only help in reducing hurting immoral actions that reduce happiness but also teaches people the moral steps which are vital at the course the journey of life. Thus, people will be contented with the little pleasure they get hence a lot of happiness.
Therefore, humans should be out to ensure the happiness of others. Pleasure will not only lead to the smooth movement of life but also considered to be the greatest achievement someone can realise. In addition to that, learning of others personality is very critical to achieve such goals. It helps in identifying the intensity of someone’s view on happiness achievement. Therefore, when humans can understand each other to produce the admirable fruit of happiness, a new world of action must be achieved.
Conclusion
Overall, individualism has been focusing on the personal ambitions of an individual without societal well-being in mind. The Roman tradition is one that has greatly embraced the individualistic culture towards encouraging the growth of an individual. They believe that an individual is a precious gift which must be respected. Individualistic cultures have been perceived to possess certain traits of freedom and independence to enhance self-worth. Thus, it is right to conclude that individualism aims at personal growth and sensibility.
On the contrary, Latinos, who inherited their traditions from the Roman culture, tend to be collectivists. But after migrating to America. Some have been showing good individual traits as much as they have a collectivism culture. On matters of happiness and utilitarianism, the main focus is on inducing pleasure on an individual without any pains. The various factors that enhance satisfaction have also been discussed to show how cultures relate.