AFTERnow

‘We have arrived at a territory no humans have ever inhabited – a territory which human culture in the past considered uninhabitable.’

(Zygmunt Bauman, 2001)

Any culture has the power to influence and shape people’s perceptions, emotions, beliefs, values and expectations in ways that are normally taken for granted as ‘just the way we do things’. One of the key characteristics of Western culture is that it celebrates and promotes individualism. Such cultural values provide the framework for deciding what is true, important and good: they have a central role in determining relationships and meaning.

Modern freedom has been won by shaking off the restrictive moral horizons of earlier times, setting us free to choose and shape our own life course in ways unimagined by our ancestors. Individualism has thus been a progressive force in our history. On the other hand, numerous commentators suggest that the reality in some contemporary Western societies differs from this early ideal. Canadian philosopher and political scientist Charles Taylor sums up the dual nature of the problem when he tells us that individualism is both one of the finest achievements of modern civilisation and one of the main malaises which troubles people living in such societies. This paper sets out to explain the second point.