What Is Individualism?
Individualism is an idea of society that champions individual liberty, creativity, and self-reliance. A thriving society cannot be engineered by the collectivist designs of central planners, sociology professors, or government economists. Rather, it is is the combined effects of individual actions and the spontaneous collaborations of free people that produce economic growth, cultural vitality, and social wellbeing.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Individualism is an idea of society that champions individual liberty, creativity, and self-reliance. A thriving society cannot be engineered by the collectivist designs of central planners, sociology professors, or government economists. Rather, it is is the combined effects of individual actions and the spontaneous collaborations of free people that produce economic growth, cultural vitality, and social wellbeing.
Individualism and Entrepreneurship
If you asked someone to describe the ideal entrepreneur, they might describe a person who is ambitious, resourceful, creative, energetic, self-motivated, and adaptable. They might say that an entrepreneur achieves success by disrupting the status quo with an innovative service or product that improves people’s lives. If you asked us to describe the ideal individualist, we might say the very same things.
Our Brand of Individualism
Choosing a label for our intellectual commitments is dangerous because of subjectivity. If I say I am an individualist, not a conservative or a liberal, an observer may interpret that in their own subjective way, and not understand what I think I mean to say.
CFI takes its individualism from F.A. Hayek, who said that individuals should be allowed to be guided in their actions by those immediate consequences which they can know and care for, and not be made to do what seems appropriate to somebody else who is supposed to possess a fuller comprehension of the significance of these actions to society as a whole.
True Individualists
Hayek’s true individualists understand that no one possesses that fuller comprehension. Rulers can have no better grasp of the whole than do the ruled. However, rulers lack something that ruled individuals have: knowledge of the subjects’ own particular circumstances, interests, preferences skills, and so on. Hence the injunction that the State should leave peaceful people alone and the conviction that strict observance of that injunction serves the general good.
Individualism In Economics
Economists understand that the market as it has grown up is an effective way for people to take part in a process more complex and extended than they can comprehend and that it is through the market that they contribute to ends which were no part of their purpose.
