Your Gut Is The Most Correct Gut Of All

Absolutely. The idea that one person can change the world is generally thought of as positive and uplifting, and as a consequence most people miss the fact that such a belief is solipsistic, insanely inefficient, and ultimately very conservative.

We're supposed to be concerned with our "carbon footprint", when what we really should do is elect people who will raise the MPG requirement, invest in better technologies, and provide incentives for denser, less energy-intensive communities.

We're supposed to use our time and energy learning how to master a potentially dangerous product, rather than pass laws forcing the manufacturers to just make the product safer.

And, as per your atrocious-sounding book, we're supposed to scale mountains and build schools on our own out of nothing but will and gumption, rather than vote for a government that makes education spending and school policies an actual priority.

(see also: health care, personal finance, obesity, really anything and everything ...)

Social goals become personal endeavors. Responsibility is shifted from the directly culpable few (polluting companies) to the indirectly culpable many (consumers). The relatively simple and fair (find out how much damage is being caused and reduce it) becomes complex and unfair (how do you calculate a "carbon footprint", again? and nobody else is doing it!). And as we continue to believe that everything lies in the hands of us individuals, the disdain for any kind of collective action grows and grows.

I'm just glad this idiotic meme hasn't stunted us more -- imagine this kind of thinking in 1964. Integration would be a "personal preference", shopping at a segregated store would be a "consumer choice", and, above all, ending institutionalized racism would be a matter of "individual responsibility". Does anyone really think that this approach would have been just as successful as the Civil Rights Acts and the other instances of government intervention? Shouldn't being effective be the most important attribute when we choose a solution to a problem?

Then again, even though that approach would likely lead to decades of failure and no discernible progress, I'm sure all those stories of personal triumph would have been very uplifting.

-A