INDIVIDUALISM AND THE VITALITY OF COMMUNITY LIFE: AN UPDATE
TIBOR R. MACHANABSTRACT. No individual has ever survived alone, solely as somebody apart from others. These others might have been fellow animals or most often, fellow humans. Family, neighbors, tribe, village or city, and by now country and world, all form a vital feature of the life of every individual human being. So any opposition between the individual person and various communities of which he or she is a member makes little sense. But there is no justification for such a dichotomy. We are, as some would put the point, nothing apart from the group or groups of which we are members. Yet, we are not much either if our individuality is stifled, suppressed and banned. So then why ever did this conflict become so commonplace?
JEL codes: D83; A13; D46; D63
Keywords: individualism; vitality; community life; society; liberalism
How to cite: Machan, Tibor R. (2017), “Individualism and the Vitality of Community Life: An Update,” Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management 5(2): 7–24.
Received 22 March 2015 • Received in revised form 28 November 2015
Accepted 29 November 2015 • Available online 13 December 2016
doi:10.22381/PIHRM5220171