The Historical Frame

Abstract

The values and assumptions built into the American adventure formula are also central to the ideological tradition of the United States; to that body of ideas which form the basis for its political, economic and social system, and which often take the form of unstated and untested assumptions underlying thought and expression. ‘Individualism ’ is a main constituent of American ideology: it postulates that the individual is the foundation of society and that his interests and rights should have priority over those of the society. Ideally, the individual surrenders as few rights as possible to the domain of societal control. Though individualism may take on more socially benign forms of self-realisation, one very important product of individualism can be ‘possessive individualism ’, as C. B. Macpherson has pointed out:The individual, it was thought, is free inasmuch as he is proprietor of his person and capacities. The human essence is freedom from dependence on the wills of others, and freedom is a function of possession. Society becomes a lot of free equal individuals related to each other as proprietors of their own capacities and of what they have acquired by their exercise. Society consists of relations of exchange between proprietors. Political society becomes a calculated device for the protection of this property and for the maintenance of an orderly relation of exchange. (57: 3)