About The Independent Individualist

Purpose

In all the world, every minority is recognized by a host of agencies, organizations, and institutions defending their "rights," attending to their particular needs, and addressing their interests—every minority, that is, except one, the smallest minority in the world—the independent individual. It is that minority the Independent Individualist recognizes and is dedicated to.

There is an irony in this, however. The hallmark of the independent individualists is self-sufficiency and self-assurance—the certainty they are competent to live happily and successfully without anyone's guidance, advice, help, or approval. What, then, can the Independent Individualist possibly offer them?

What Individualism Is

The apparent irony of dedicating a site to individualists is because the true nature of individualists is misunderstood. I have written a whole series of articles about individualists which answer the question of what individualism is, and much more. Here I'll only point out those characteristics that pertain to the purpose of the Independent Individualist.

One Dedicated to Individualism

The Independent Individualist is not the first to be dedicated to individualism. There have been many individualists in the history of the world, but as far as I know, there is only one person who explicitly stated that her "mission in life" was "individualism."¹ That individual was Ayn Rand.

She understood what individualism is. In a letter to Rose Wilder Lane,² she wrote, "Of course, Individualism doesn't mean isolation, aloofness or escaping to a desert island. In fact, only true Individualists are fit to associate with other men." [Emphasis added.]

It is because individualists want nothing from life but what they have earned by their own effort, and want nothing from others but to be left alone. The only relationships with others they are interested in are moral one: those relationships both desired and choosen by all parties to their mutual benefit, without any coercion, threats, or incrimiations. That is why individualists are the only ones truly fit to enjoy the benefits of a civilized society. This is what Rand meant when she wrote, "Only free, independent men can cooperate and feel benevolence toward one another."²

Do you know why "only free, independent men can cooperate and feel benevolence toward one another?" It is because only the independent individualist makes no claims on anyone else, not their life, not their time, and not their property. The independent individualist wants nothing from others except what he has earned, including other's admiration, and more importantly, love.

The independent individualist neither accepts or gives the unearned, which, while it is a matter of principle, is more importantly a profoundly personal matter: to know all one achieves, acquires, and owns is by means of ones own effort is proof one is worthy of all he possess and enjoys. Whether it is material possessions, or the friendship of others, or the highest form of romantic love, the independent individualist seeks to have and give only that which is earned—anything else is form of fraud, parasitism, or slavery.

The purpose of the Independent Individualist is, therefore, to provide both the resources true individualists will find nowhere else and the opportunity to enjoy the company of other's who neither seek or desire anything from them except what is to their mutual benefit, and the recognition of those who know what it means to be truly free and independent and who could not live in any other way.

What To Look For?

The Autonomist will continue to publish the best writers addressing the issues of invidivual liberty and those aspects of government, US domestic and international policy, society and culture, as well as world affairs, that are important to those seeking individual liberty.

The Autonomist will also continue to publish The Autonomist philsophy series. Since The Autonomist regards independent individualism, not as an ideology, or even an ideal, but as a description of highest and fullest realization of human nature, it's philosophy is entirely for individualists. It will neither be understood or of any use to subjectivists, the irrational, altruists, collectivists, second-handers, evaders, the dishonest or disingenuous—to some or all of which categories the majority of mankind unfortunately belong.

Categories

One reason for the new Independent Individualist is to automate the organization of articles as archives arranged by author, date (archives), alphabetical lists, or categories. Some of the old categories described as "resources for individualists" will be continued, including the following:

• Expats and Pts (permanent travelers)—because the world belongs to independent individualists.
• Self-sufficiency—sources and resources for maintaining one's independence in all situations and conditions.
• Finance and asset protection—methods and resources for creating wealth and protecting it.
• Threats—monitoring the worlds governments and societies for the continually changing unpredictable threats they pose to the individual's person, property, and liberty.
• Online Resources—finding links to all the online resources of value to individualists.

ASAP

ASAP is not a new category, but one that has been neglected. It existed in the oldest Autonomist as a frequent, daily, sometimes hourly, posting of timely subjects, usually brief, with links to events and emerging conditions that all freedom loving individuals need to be aware of. ASAP postings will be intersperced with other II postings, but can always be seen together under the ASAP category.

The Revolution

There is a revolution happening. It is not a revolution in the usual sense, it is not political or social. It is a revolution of ideas, brought about by individuals who have discovered no government, no movement, no organization, and no other individual can make them free; but they are unwilling to live under any level of oppression or slavery.

These individuals are bringing about a revolution by setting themselves free, and are building a society, not by design or social engineering, but by the inevitable nature of those who discover each other and their shared values and purpose and value to each other—a society of free individuals interacting with each other by their free choice to their mutual benefit.

The boundaries of this society are not geographical, but intellectual. The borders of the world occupied by this society are made of ideas; those ideas are the basis of independent individualism. The sum of those ideas is that human life is embodied in individuals and the life of every individual is his own. Every individual is responsible for his own life and choices and to live fully as a human being, one must be free to choose how he lives his life in all respects, which means free to bear the consequences of his wrong choices and free to enjoy the fruits of his right ones, without limit or restriction of any kind. Ultimately, right and wrong choices are determined by the reality, not by any subjective or collective will, and that reality is the ultimate arbiter of right, wrong, falsehood and truth.

The citizens of this society are independent individualists and the revolution is the result of their individual choice to live free. The Independent Individualist is one of the products of that revolution, not a cause of it; it exists because independent individualists exist and it is they who are its purpose and reason for existing.

1. "That one word—individualism—is to be the theme song, the goal, the only aim of all my writing. If I have any real mission in life—this is it."
[The Letters of Ayn Rand, "Arrival In America To We The Living (1926-1936)," Letter To Marjorie Williams, June 18, 1936.]

2. "Of course, Individualism doesn't mean isolation, aloofness or escaping to a desert island. In fact, only true Individualists are fit to associate with other men. But they do it only on the basis of the recognition of each man's essential independence: each man lives primarily for, by and through himself and recognizes the same right in others; all relations among men are secondary; men are legally and morally free to associate together or not, on any particular occasion, as their personal interests dictate. There is the pattern of a free, moral society, of human cooperation, and of benevolence among men. ....

"You are right, of course, when you say that collectivism disintegrates human cooperation and comes to "dog-eat-dog." Only free, independent men can cooperate and feel benevolence toward one another. But they can do it only because (and only so long as) they know that cooperation will involve no pain or injury to them—that is, no demand for self-sacrifice."
[The Letters of Ayn Rand, "The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged Years (1945-1959)," Letter to To Rose Wilder Lane November 3, 1946.]