Neuroscience and individualism
It’s a fair generalisation to say that individualism is the opium of the west. Everything from my truth to my gender to my opinions, my career and on and on. So much of contemporary consumerism, and the idols young people follow in their millions on instagram and youtube are based around obsessions with the authentic self: instagram selfies, twitter opinions, the products you wear, the people you follow, the gender you choose — all this is based on a belief in the expression of our free and unique inner self. So much of how people act and define themselves is centred on a conception of their own authenticity and freedom.
This has its benefits. We have experienced a gradual shift away from and abandoning of a Christian worldview that formed an ideal of human rights extending back to the Magna Carta, through the individual centred transformation of the protestant reformation, concomitant with beliefs about the Imago Dei; yet the upholding of the individual as valuable has proved steady even without any religious girding: while we are selfish we still want a world where everyone can be selfish, as freely as they want. Events in Ukraine tell us this is a freedom that those of us who might criticise our increasing shallowness should not take for granted. Freedom, individualism, are good things.
