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I’m confused, how is this an anticapitalist meme? Individualism is usually pushed my capitalists to divide the working class so I really don’t understand the perspective and purpose behind this meme.
This is a leftist meme community, the only thing it is not is authoritarian. It is not following a narrow ml-minded understanding where capitalism is the sole purveyor of problems but addressing authority as a whole, of which capitalism is one subset of alongside religion, sexuality/gender, culture, and others.
To make such a claim that all of egoism is capitalist propaganda is frankly rather wild and would require some incredible evidence to back. It’s a movement with a long line of history and often demonised by those seeking to discredit it.
Egoism is much more than selfish individualism, it’s recognising you are the sole judge in your life.
Egoism is about voluntarily working together, out of recognition for your fellow person rather than because a spook says you must. As Stirner said:
“I love men too — not merely individuals, but every one. But I love them with the consciousness of egoism; I love them because love makes me happy, I love because loving is natural to me, because it pleases me. I know no commandment of love.”
While the state may try to fit us into easy to understand labels and uses, as tools in a box, we as humans are more than that. Egoism is loving your autistic trans peoples and their queerness for who they are, it’s wanting everyone to flourish in a life of their true self.
From an angle you may be more familiar with, it is also anticapitalist, as to quote Stirner again:
“The laborers have the most enormous power in their hands, and, if they once became thoroughly conscious of it and used it, nothing would withstand them; they would only have to stop labor, regard the product of labor as theirs, and enjoy it. This is the sense of the labor disturbances which show themselves here and there.”
If we seek to exercise our individual power, we can learn to exercise our group power. Change is something that has to come from the bottom up in all of us. It flourishes in our own weird ways, and we embrace these myriad of differences together out of mutual want for the wellbeing of all, and to be completely selfish for a minute we cannot be free until everyone is free.
Every person is unique and they can best understand their needs and problems, they should be in charge of running themselves.
Every community is unique and they can best understand their needs and problems, they should be in charge of coming together and running themselves.
I guess my issue with the meme is largely semantic, because I always considered egoism to be a separate concept to individualism, as in I understood it as egoism being internal, as in you are the judge of your life and decide what you do, whereas individualism is thrust upon us, as it is happening in the states right now by an authoritarian government.
Basically i saw it as individualism being us being forced apart and egoism being prioritizing and loving the self.
It is clear to me that whomever created this meme has a different understanding of those words/concepts than i do.
I want to make it clear I was not arguing with the sentiment (I agree with it) but merely trying to understand it. Thank you so much for your detailed explanation! That Stirner quote is fantastic
The flag in the meme is the egoist anarchist flag. The claims of individualism is from the authleft seeking to discredit it.
And your intent came across clearly! I would never have written so many words (without abuse ;) ) if I had assumed any ill meaning.
I learned so much today!
In that case it would be useful to write “egoism” instead of “individualism” in text at least once.
In the meme template, you are not the child, you are advised to behave like the youngest parent. So the youngest parent should already be an egoist anarchist.
But instead the child being the one that draws the egoist anarchist flag implies that you should help people develop it without necessarily being it. So what should you be? Well, the parent is called an individualist, so it’s reasonable to guess that’s what you’re asking people to be.
Thus the miscommunication.
Maybe
dead guy: “Individualism is the collapse of common decency”
old guy: “Egoism is neglecting your community”
young guy with superimposed anarcho-egoist flag: “Your well-being comes first”
kid: makes a solarpunk drawing or whatever else would best signify a flourishing anarcho-egoist community in your eyes.
or
dead guy: “you anarchists are entitled thieves”
old guy: “you egoists are neglecting your comrades”
young guy: “your well-being comes first”
kid: draws a bank on fire, an image of handing out food, or some other symbol of voluntary mutual aid.
Take care of yourself, and know what you’re willing to make sacrifices for.
Japan laffs at this childish western understanding of human development. We are not two, we are one.
We are not two, we are one
Strangers on this road we are on…
Care to explain that further?
It’s childish to believe that rugged individualism can help society flourish. Japan believes in collective action, nobody is left out, everyone cooperates because it’s not you versus me, it’s we together. The signs of an actual social construct, not an individual western me me me
Maybe don’t praise Japan too much, they veer too hard into conformity so much so that girls have had to dye their hair black in school and it’s harmed them. Plus they’re still very much behind on LGBTQIA+ rights too.
Egoism is not “rugged individualism” or whatever ML slander you want to call it, it is co-operation. Voluntary co-operation out of wanting to see others live their best lives and be free rather than a because a system says you must. Egoism is everyone cooperates because it’s not we together, it’s we want you to have a life full of well-being and will find a way to accommodate you that works for everyone.
You should read more about the ‘Union of Egoists’ and how people can come together in a mutually respectful, open, and equal manner.
And Japan has an oppressive and rigid social structure that ostracises and outcasts those who do not conform, it is a horrible way to live for anyone who doesn’t fit into the very narrow definition of acceptable. No one should suffer that homogeneous conformist approach to living.
