The Importance of Individualism

I am sure we have all watched a movie or read at book based in the past and though, "Wow, I would love to in [plug in the appropriate time period]." I know that I am guilty of watching Pride and Prejudice and thinking about how great it would be to morph into Elizabeth Bennet. I would get to live in a world full of romance and excitement! Life just seems to be better back then. Families stayed together and got along. People were friendly and got along with each other. All of this seem idyllic for a while. That is, until I realize that I would be forced to be a submissive woman without rights who would be subjected to hours of meaningless small talk and spend my life creating pointless artwork and children. The range of what was socially acceptable would be very limited. Things would not be perfect and idyllic, instead I would be living in a time of suppression that would be unlivable due to my experiences of living in a time period in which almost everything is geared towards making every individual feel unique and original.

I do not think that individualism is a problem in our society. I actually believe that is a very necessary part of life. Although living in a place in which individual needs do not matter and in which everyone works for the common good may be successful, I do not see a way for individuals to thrive in this type of environment. Instead I think that individual expression is important, because once a person has the ability to do whatever they want to do, within reasonable limits, they have the opportunity to make him or herself happy. I think a major problem that many people have today is that they do not take the initiative to make their lives better. Instead of looking on the bright side, people would rather sit around and nitpick about every last detail of their lives that is not perfect. Happiness is about attitude and if a person really wants to be happy, all he or she really needs to do it look at the positive things in their life and try to change the things that are negative. Many people have worked very hard to give us the freedoms that we now have, so instead of complaining, we should utilize our resources and make ourselves happy.