What is to be the individual’s concern?
”God of course!” says the preacher.
”No, No, humanity is our greatest concern!” says the atheist.
“Why humanity? Does not our nation, our people, come first?” says the patriot.
”Our class!” shouts the business owner and worker as they strangle each other, ”Our class must come first! I am not paying for the lazy thieves!”
”Morality is the greatest concern,” says the quiet philosopher. ”The individual must put aside their desires, and embrace virtue.”
Do any of these things care for the individual concerns? No! If the individual transgresses God’s will, then they are a heretic and must burn. If the individual fancies crime, the nation deems them a traitor and punishes them. ”Think of the poor, crushed by exploiters” cries the comrade, ignoring your freedom. ”Think of the entrepreneur, crushed by mob violence” cries the manager, ignoring your poverty. And Morality despises the individual, calling them the worst kinds of words for any vice they enjoy.
So must the individual submit themselves and live for others. No, say I, we must live for ourselves!
”But you mustn't,” says the preacher, atheist, patriot, worker, business owner, and philosopher. ”How will society even function?!”
I will explain how now:
First, the individual must secure their material place in the world. Surely they don’t have all they need, so they go to others and offer to trade. If he has nothing to trade they offer to work. Thus a market has sprung up. Make no mistake however. The working individual will not be satisfied working for another. They will demand cooperation within their workplace and will take part with their fellow coworkers in its operation. We see that this society values free association, free trade, free competition, and free cooperation. Voluntary non-hierarchical associations will appear to fill any need the individual might have.
”But what about the violence, the coercion, the degeneracy,” asks the anti-individualists, forgetting that the individual fears these things themselves. If an individual takes murder up as their hobby, don't the corpses have friends and family who will be moved to anger against the murderer? Will not the would-be murderer be fearful of violence against them and their friends, and call for peace? Truly it isn’t my world that anti-individualists should fear, but theirs. When the individual defends themselves against the violence of God, humanity, the nation, class, and moral champions, where are the anti-individualists? Telling the individual how it is ”peace, love, virtue, and all the good things for which the good cause do violence”, and how the individual's resistance is selfish and indecent. The meek individual submits, and so the violence continues.
Is there a place for morality in my selfish world? Either it must submit to the individual or become imaginary and forgotten. Is there a place for classes in my selfish world? No, and yes, for the individual is both at once the business owner and the worker. Is there a place for nations in my selfish world? Individuals will come together for needs and wants, not because of similarities in lands or heritage. Is there a place for humanity in my selfish world? If it wishes to be free, perhaps. If not, it will surely be disappointing. Does God have a place in my selfish world? Is God not free to choose whether to befriend the individual or to make the individual his enemy? I will leave that for God to decide.
This is the world I dream of, and it can be achieved. Come, and consider my words.