{"id":39948,"date":"2025-01-16T08:01:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T16:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39948"},"modified":"2025-01-16T08:19:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T16:19:42","slug":"the-risks-of-abandoning-community-for-individualism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-risks-of-abandoning-community-for-individualism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Risks of Abandoning Communal Ties for Individualism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pre-Deneen Reflections <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When I think about liberal democracy, I\u2019m reminded of a scene from Almost Famous<\/em>, a movie I loved as a teenager. Set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the character Anita Miller decides to break free from her repressive \u201chouse of lies\u201d and her overly strict mother in pursuit of a more liberated life. As she leaves, Anita boldly declares, \u201cI\u2019m a \u2018Yes\u2019 person, and you\u2019re trying to raise us in a \u2018No\u2019 environment.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Though not a perfect metaphor for liberal democracy, this moment captures a key idea: the freedom to dissent and challenge the status quo. In a liberal democracy, citizens have the power to shape their own lives, grounded in their unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In liberal democracies, democratic movements often emerge as a response to perceived deficiencies in government responsiveness and accountability. These movements seek to ensure that those in power serve the needs and will of the people. Governments are expected to respect citizens’ freedoms of speech, assembly, and expression, and movements that call for change are usually not shut down or punished, as long as they remain within legal boundaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

These principles of liberal democracy were deeply ingrained in my thinking, particularly during high school and early years of college. I attended both public and private Christian institutions, where I received a liberal education and was shaped by Christian values\u2014especially the imperative to love God and love others. I came to understand that no system is perfect, as we live in a broken world marked by insatiable desires, greed, and violence. Yet, despite its imperfections, a liberal democracy offers freedoms and privileges not shared by many across the globe. I believe these freedoms should be used to advocate for and protect the marginalized and voiceless\u2014a conviction I still hold today.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I deeply value individual freedom and the ability to shape our lives, I also seek to glorify God in my choices and actions, ensuring that my freedom honors His laws and respects others and His creation. As a Christian raised in a liberal democracy, I find it empowering and challenging to navigate my yeses and noes with the evolving definitions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness\u2014and how these ideals should be understood and lived out today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Post-Deneen Reflections <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While reading Patrick Deneen\u2019s Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, I found myself challenged by his critique of liberalism\u2019s reconceived definition of liberty<\/em> and the dangers of a borderless<\/em> pursuit of self-interest\u2014what Deneen describes in an interview with R.R. Reno as an \u201cabyss of choice.\u201d[2]<\/a> Deneen contrasts this modern notion of liberty<\/em> with the ancient understanding, writing, \u201cThe Greeks especially regarded self-government as a continuity from the individual to the polity, with the realization of either only possible if the virtues of temperance, wisdom, moderation, and justice were to be mutually sustained and fostered.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I began my pre-Deneen reflections with the story of a movie character seeking to escape her mother\u2019s restrictive home\u2014a scene I see as a metaphor for liberal democracy. Like the character, citizens of a democratic system enjoy the privilege of stepping away<\/em> from<\/em> or challenging ideals they perceive as unjust, reflecting the high value placed on personal liberty and autonomy. However, Deneen critiques this radical independence<\/em> and autonomy<\/em>, instead advocating for \u201ccommunity as the appropriate setting for flourishing human life.\u201d[4]<\/a> He writes that community \u201clives and acts by the common virtues of trust, goodwill, forbearance, self-restraint, compassion, and forgiveness.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Central to Deneen\u2019s argument is the emphasis on learned virtue and proper self-governance for the common good. He explains that the ancient conception of liberty includes an element of self-restraint: \u201cthe learned capacity of human beings to conquer the slavish pursuit of base and hedonistic desires.\u201d[6]<\/a> In this view, true liberty demands individual discipline and a deep commitment to community.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, Deneen warns that liberalism undermines these communal bonds and relationships. He writes, \u201cNot only are all political and economic relationships seen as fungible and subject to constant redefinition, so are all relationships\u2014to place, to neighborhood, to nation, to family, and religion. Liberalism encourages loose connections.\u201d[7]<\/a> This erosion of local and relational ties, Deneen argues, leads to the rise of \u201cdisembedded\u201d or disassociated individuals\u2014those who \u201cderive their basic identity from the state.\u201d[8]<\/a> He cautions that such individuals, \u201cseeking to fill the void left by the weakening of more local memberships and associations, [are] susceptible to a fanatical willingness to identify completely with a distant and abstract state.\u201d[9]<\/a> This condition, he warns, creates the conditions for totalitarianism to emerge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deneen\u2019s writing has affirmed the importance of community and belonging. Similarly, author and physician Gabor Mat\u00e9 highlights in The Myth of Normalcy: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture<\/em> the need to look beyond self-interest, stating, \u201cOur concept of well-being must move from the individual to the global in every sense of that word.\u201d[10]<\/a> He further explains, \u201cAncient cultures have long understood that we exist in relationship to all, are affected by all, and affect all.\u201d[11]<\/a> Deneen, too, cautions that the condition of complete freedom leaves individuals racked with anxiety; the only relief from this is the Leviathan[12]<\/a>. He writes, \u201cthe vehicles of our liberation have become iron cages of our captivity.\u201d[13]<\/a> Both Deneen and Mat\u00e9 voice deep concerns over the weakening of community ties, warning that this erosion robs people of the emotional security that comes from meaningful connections. Mat\u00e9 asserts that such relationships are \u201ca condition for maturation,\u201d[14]<\/a> essential for individual and collective growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, Deneen\u2019s critique of individualism in liberal democracy challenged my long-held belief in the importance of personal autonomy and the freedom to break away from restrictions. Over the past year, however, I\u2019ve come to recognize the vital role community plays in human flourishing. Given more time, I would explore further the parallels between Deneen and Mat\u00e9, both of whom offer powerful insights into society’s health and well-being.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Movieclips, \u201cAlmost Famous – ‘Yes\u2019 and \u2018No\u2019 Scene (1\/10),\u201d YouTube video, 1:52, published March 2, 2016, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L5-Ga83bZv8<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Patrick Deneen and R. R. Reno, After Liberalism: A Conversation with Patrick Deneen and R. R. Reno<\/em>, YouTube video, 1:19:48, posted by Institute of Advanced Studies<\/em>, January 10, 2025, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L5-Ga83bZv8<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em> (Politics and Culture; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), 22, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, 22, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, 78-79, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, 37, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, 34, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, 59, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid, 59.<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Gabor Mat\u00e9, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture<\/em> (New York: Penguin Publishing Group, 2021), 3, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Mat\u00e9, The Myth of Normal, <\/em>52, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> In Leviathan<\/em>, Hobbes argues that in the absence of a powerful government, humans would exist in a chaotic “state of nature,” where life would be violent, insecure, and “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” To escape this chaos, individuals enter into a “social contract,” agreeing to give up certain freedoms in exchange for the protection of their lives and property by a sovereign authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed<\/em>, 6-7, Kindle Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Mat\u00e9, The Myth of Normal, <\/em>182, Kindle Edition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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