Divided Individual

Positive goals can have unintended consequences. One push back on liberalism is a push back on individualism and selfishness. A suggested answer is to create bigger groups. This allows us to focus on something bigger than ourselves. If that group is defined by its differences from others, even though that difference is common ground within the ingroup, it leads to the same negative effects that repulse us from selfishness. Thomas Leonard tells of the progressive movements push to give moral gravity to bigger groups of the individual. To focus on the 'nation, state, society, commonwealth, public, people, race, and, especially, the social organism'. If the story we use to build our confidence is a story that pushes us above others, by finding strength in others like us, that isn't a push back on individualism. That is just redefining the divided individual.