Response to Martinez on Individualism and self-perception

Part 1: Concepts
Dr. Martinez focuses this article on two aspects of the dominant conception of self in North American society, individualism and anti-structuralism. Western society since John Locke has tended to reify the individual and place “it” at the center of society. Concordantly, westerners tend to understand ethics, politics, self-identity etc. along individualistic terms and without reference to the social or relational sphere. For example, we define ourselves by our achievements, not our social bonds, and “moving out” serves as a primary marker of adulthood in our culture. Anti-structuralism is integrally related to individualism, and is the tendency of Euro-Americans to be unable to see structural issues, e.g. systematic racism or systems of global economic injustice. We tend to interpret problems on individualistic terms, and consequently our attempts to fix those problems tend to operate on the individual level rather than on larger, systematic levels. Martinez also notes that pragmatism also plays a significant role in our perception, causing us to be more interested in functionality than on ideals.

Part 2: Personal Reflection
A fairly common experience related to these issues is going off to college to live in a dorm and then returning to ones family for the summer break. I recall very distinctly the readjustment that would take place each time I came home for the summer—almost as a rule it took me about two weeks (often somewhat frustrating weeks) to slide back into my role at home. This experience (shared by most of my friends back in college) both illustrates the concept of western individualism while at the same time shows up tensions and contradictions within our culture. As a freshman I and many others were excited to “discover” a new sense of self, to be able to assert and form a unique identity away from home and our old social groups where we seem so rigidly defined. Yet invariably, come the end of finals, we found ourselves quickly entrenched in our “old” identity, showing that who we “really are” is not as easily separable from our social bonds. Identity it seems is formed out of the tension and conflict between self-perception (who I “really am” in adolescent parlance) and the social realm of roles, bonds and other’s perceptions rather than by individual assertion.
Part 3: Implications for Ministry
One of the difficulties facing us for ministry is the invisibility of foundational assumptions like individualism and anti-structuralism to those who hold them (often ourselves!). Yesterday I was looking over some material for a Sunday school class my father is teaching on marriage for young couples and noted that it did not directly address the issue of individualism, which underlies many of the problems and issues the material seeks to address. One of our challenges, then, is to better understand how our assumptions of individualism impact our lives and help our brothers and sisters see these more clearly. This is a potential benefit of multiethnic congregations, because the collision of worldviews can make our assumptions more apparent. In many of the churches I’ve been in perhaps the most immediate challenge is to disabuse white believers of their anti-structural assumptions, encouraging them to address the broken systems of our society.