hyperindividualism means A tendency for people to act in a highly individual way, without regard to society.
Why “hyperindividualism” is a great word
An ideology or social condition in which personal autonomy, self-interest, and self-expression are elevated to such an extreme that they erode communal values and social cohesion. From the English prefix hyper- ("over, beyond, excessive") + individualism (from individual, ultimately from the Latin individuus ("indivisible")). Unlike "rugged individualism," which champions self-reliance within a shared national project, or "collectivism," its direct ideological antithesis, hyperindividualism acknowledges no project but the self. It is the silence of a public square where everyone is broadcasting a personal manifesto, the carefully curated isolation of a luxury apartment in a city of strangers, and the exhausting performance of a unique identity that paradoxically conforms to a market template—the tragic culmination of the quest for freedom, which ends in a prison of one.
Etymology
From hyper- + individualism.
noun
- A tendency for people to act in a highly individual way, without regard to society.e.g.“As quickly as bottled water became a symbol of healthy hyperindividualism — sort of an iPod for your kidneys — a backlash turned it into the devil’s drink.” — 2008 June 15, Lisa Margonelli, “Tapped Out”, in New York Times:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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