https://x.com/goblinodds/status/1932796053817901277
is it possible to create the perfect hybrid culture that
- is strongly individualistic + agentic
- values family and community
- cherishes small pleasures, the seasons, artisanship
- knows how to relax and how to party or do you actually have to make tradeoffs here
Why is strong individualism important? You can have high agency and normal amounts of individualistic, these are people who are community builders, people who improve the life of everyone around them.
“Someone has to do it, and no one else will.” Mentality.
That sounds way better to me as a baseline orientation from people who want to change the world for their own egoic reasons and don’t identify with greater humanity. Operating on Shoulds, grandiose/ungrounded ideals, or misguided parent issues (no validated enough) leads to worse outcomes than having a surety of purpose in a greater whole that is both coherent and co-owned by the self amongst many. Cohesion over appeasing infinitely vague impulses.
It was said elsewhere, but valuing higher order ego structures (superegos, and no I’m not using this correctly, vibe) is in direct opposition to individualism. https://x.com/theogcb405/status/1932798784343363823
VV has said before, and I hold it to be true as well, the ideal amount of responsibility is not zero. I would argue the only life worth living is one where you are co-responsible for yourself and others on organically negotiated and agreed terms. Being responsible for yourself wholly, is impossible, else we wouldn’t need therapy/older methods of self-renegotiation. Trying it, causes issues in pro-sociality. Being fully responsible for anyone else is likewise untenable, it denies them their own agency and is energetically impossible to sustain. If we all exist in this, then we are clearly in a situation where we must, in the process of living, give unto others, and accept what others give unto us.
People can only cherish things when they can Care, and this requires that their base needs are met. I have a small passage I’ve written on this. Essentially, only when everyone is focused on making everyone’s life a little better, do we flourish together and find the time and space to Care about the things in front of us, and polish them deliberately into things that have the light of humanity shining in them. We exist in a constant prisoner’s dilemma, where each action moves us forward into another prisoner’s dilemma. The metagame in understanding this and being around other people who understand this. Done right, this is beautiful.
This last point is confusing to me, I think those are not opposed. What I can think of where they might seem opposed, is in party people who are actively avoiding feeling themselves and using partying as an escapism. These types have unbridled libido from their nervousness about their actuality, and express it incompletely and unfruitfully by being party animals. Otherwise, I find I only want to party, only want to relax, sometimes.
When you approach the world from the view that each other is truly all we have, that apes together are strong, and only then. Then you must realize that you yourself are important up to a point, but the lack of superegoic mental associations is a point of downfall. Your individualist efforts are lost to the noise. You can only truly transcend your own self by working in concert, be that highly orchestrated or a mere common sense of what should be done. That is the only way towards human flourishing.