The ‘Rugged’ Individual
I’m just musing today.
As an old person, I remember admiring the idea and portrayal of the rugged individual.
Merriam-Webster defines rugged individualism as: “the practice or advocacy of individualism in social and economic relations emphasizing personal liberty and independence, self-reliance, resourcefulness, self-direction of the individual, and free competition in enterprise.”
To reminisce about the rugged individual by today’s PC protocol is to remember a myth. That shows you how outdated I am.
The myth is supposedly exposed by the proposition that we all are the products of where we started which in turn results in where we end up. In other words, it depends on who someone’s parents were/are and how much money they made. Add to that the whole race and gender victimization routine.
Movie roles played by the likes of John Wayne, Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood and a host of others, as rugged individuals are just products of the myth and have extended it, according to the rhetoric.
There you have it, not only is rugged individualism dead to the PC-ers, so is the individual.
If you believe that you can be assured you will not be canceled by any of your favorite social media platforms. And if that’s high on your list of personal priorities, by denying your individuality you have arrived at the ‘safe place’ of required conformity and group think under the enforcement by the self-appointed police of required ideology.
It’s pretty sad.
The rugged individual used to be admired not only in the movies but in real life. Our founders wrote our Constitution based on the rights of individuals, not groups. Until this point in time the individual stood for that Constitution. And we stood up for the individual.
Individual rights are those considered so essential that they warrant specific statutory protection from interference. While the U.S. Constitution, for example, divides and restricts the powers of the federal and state governments to check their own and each other’s power, it also expressly ensures and protects certain rights and liberties of individuals from government interference. Most of these rights, such as the First Amendment’s prohibition of government actions that limit the freedom of speech and the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to keep and bear arms, are enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Other individual rights, however, are established throughout the Constitution, such as the right to trial by jury in Article III and the Sixth Amendment, and the Due Process of Law Clause found in the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment.
Many individual rights protected by the Constitution deal with criminal justice, such as the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable governmental searches and seizures and the Fifth Amendment’s well-known right against self-incrimination. Other individual rights are established by the U.S. Supreme Court in its interpretations of the sometimes few, vaguely worded rights found in the Constitution.
For a moment let’s consider Individual rights in contrast to group rights, the rights of groups based on the enduring characteristics of their members. Examples of group rights include the rights of an indigenous people that its culture should be respected and the rights of a religious group that it should be free to engage in collective expressions of its faith and that its sacred sites and symbols should not be desecrated.
But, as America is divided into more and more groups, the individual gets lost.
Group rights result in group outcomes – and when we have group outcomes it means the surrender of individual rights and individual outcomes.
As groups grow, they compete with each other. The individual is not supported in a group.
Group think involves protecting the individuals for their own good, many times from themselves. So, the weakest become the focus of group activity while the innovators and geniuses are not recognized as providing anything worthwhile for the group. Without innovation a society stagnates.
That’s why opponents of socialism are correct when postulating, from others’ experiences, that collectivism actually results in the opposite of panacea.
The point of all this is simple.
Focusing on the individual and living in a society that values the individual and commensurate rights is what our founders knew and believed when writing our fundamental documents.
It’s why the U.S. has been so successful as a country and a society – as diverse as it is.
“Elementary, my dear Watson.”
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://prospect.org/economy/myth-rugged-individual/
https://www.thoughtco.com/individual-rights-definition-and-examples-5115456
SPIDER Bites
The price of oil (gas) was setting records before Russia invaded Ukraine. That debacle has made it worse as the risk of economic interruption and even world war has increased speculation in oil and gas and pushed prices even higher. Now the WH is trying to make deals with the likes of Iran and Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to increase the world’s supply of oil. Still no indication this administration is even considering increasing the use of our own resources. Do desperate times call for ‘desperate’ measures? America is experiencing the biggest ‘tax’ increase ever in the soaring prices for diesel, gasoline, food, and everything else – and that could put our economy in the tank. Prices at the pump have never been higher.
Washington applauded the President’s order to stop importing oil from Russia last week. Think about it. Does that hurt Russia, help Ukraine? Answer: no. It’s symbolism, not substance. Unfortunately, that’s happens too frequently in D.C.
The latest red herring thrown out by this administration is that there are 9,000 oil leases that have not been exercised. We’re supposed to think the oil companies are deliberately not drilling. You can trust that every private oil production company is producing as much as possible at the current price. To suggest otherwise is a capitalistic lie.
If you didn’t want to go to war with Russia, you’re SOL. After we initiated a proposition with Poland to ‘backfill’ aircraft given to Ukraine, the administration has backed off the plan. I would guess NATO gave President Biden an earful. Using a surrogate for war fools no one. A war with Russia does nothing for us – excepting the politicians and those who would make money from it.
Our VP suggested last week the price of gas will be a boon to electric, non-greenhouse gas emitting vehicles. Like many other ‘green’ propositions, it ignores how the batteries in those electric cars are charged. Electricity prices are also setting records and to think you and I will be better off with an expensive electric car in our driveway totally misses reality. Over 90% of our electrical generation is accomplished by burning fossil fuels. And the average cost of residential electricity for the year ending 2021 was up 7.6%. BTW, a major exporter of lithium and cobalt is China while Russia is a top nickel exporter – all three required for electric car batteries.
Will somebody remind me what national interests are being served with our involvement in the Russia/Ukraine war? One, why are we interested in anything but humanitarian aid and two, have we tried for any type of negotiation to stop the bloodshed?
A bill passed by the Florida legislature last week would, beginning in 2024, initiate a multi-year phase out of the current requirement of Florida utility companies to buy-back rooftop solar electricity generation excess at retail prices. The utilities have complained the buyback doesn’t change their requirements for electricity generation and costs, because it’s small and unpredictable, and amounts to non-solar equipped ratepayers subsidizing those with them. At the end of 2020, Florida had 90,552 rooftop solar systems among 10.5M utility customers. Fact is, without federal tax credits, fewer people would be installing rooftop solar systems because the initial high cost and payback time required does not make economic sense without subsidy.
Investors are concerned about much longer economic activity can remain impervious to soaring inflation. Couple that with inflation, the administration’s slapping an embargo on Russian oil – and the Fed’s impending interest rate hike – and we have nervous investors driving up the price of oil – and gold. Investors buying oil at the sky-high prices obviously are betting the price will go higher – maybe hitting $200.
The Labor Dept. reports a 7.95% February inflation rate over the last year. But we won’t drill despite the pain. How does a president get so much power?
