The myth of the Individual: August 24, 1998 issue of New Thinking

August 24, 1998 New Thinking:
The myth of the individual

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August 24, 1998

The myth of the individual

By Gerry McGovern

A few months ago I was at a very high powered meeting with some very high-powered people. People who ran some of the most powerful companies in the world. People who you would regard as being very individual.

And I’m sure most of the people at the meeting were individual. Strange then, as I gazed around the room at these very powerful men – they were nearly all men – at how uniform and bland they looked. They were nearly all dressed in grey-blue suits. They all looked somehow the same; the expressions they had on their faces, the same type of posture. They looked like a bunch of sheep.

One man, with the last minute ticking away, will come and save the world. Riding over the horizon he will shoot down the baddies. He will grab the damsel in despair and whisk her off to safety. Hollywood tells us again and again that the world is safe for individuals, that individuals are what we all love, that an individual is what we all want to be. Big and muscled, with no fear, saving the world for the 978th time.

It’s all a real laugh. There are precious few individuals around. And they’re not wanted, really. They’re okay up on that big screen, but we don’t want too many of them down in the office smoking cigarettes under the ‘No Smoking’ sign.

The Internet and the digital age in general is the bastion of the small player, the individual. It’s the ultimate level playing field. Right? Then how come there’s so much consolidation, industry convergence and mergers and acquisitions going on? How come if this is the age of the small player that the so-called dinosaurs are getting fatter and fatter as they gobble up more and more?

America is the land of the individual. America was built by individuals. Right? Check out, Editorial Media & Marketing International, who have written an excellent article entitled Death of the Company Town? (Editor's note: company and website now defunct.)

In it they state that, “While Americans might like to believe that this country was built on the pioneering spirit and the resolute independence of rugged individualists blazing their own trails, the reality is that the sweat that greased the wheels for the development of the greatest industrial power in the world dripped from the brows of working men who, as Tennessee Ernie Ford pointed out, owed their souls to the company store.”

Before a bunch of patriotic Americans jump down my throat, let me state for the record that I am not anti-American. I could talk for ages about the things about America I love. So spare me; I’m just trying to look behind the myths to see some reality.

How come if America so cherishes the individual that it has some of the most restrictive laws in the world on the rights of the individual. Yes, you can carry arms but no you can’t smoke a cigarette in most places. What do you think John Wayne would have said if he was asked to put out his cigar in a restaurant in San Francisco?

Gerry McGovern

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What do you think John Wayne would have said if he was asked to put out his cigar in a restaurant in San Francisco?