There is an attitude in the West that celebrates rugged individualism. This attitude is the one that perpetuates the myth that the aggressive person that has the strength to take whatever he or she wants is the height of modern humanity and the pinnacle of our evolution. This myth is the very poison that allowed the Nazis and other white supremacists to promote the idea that they were the master race, and this myth survives to this day. Society often celebrates the successful man who either created or preserved their fortunes by ruthless acts against other human beings. This is truly a myth used to keep the powerful people in power and does not actually represent how the human race evolved.
Built into all religious systems are the ideas of humility and gratitude. We are asked by all faiths to remember our humble place in life and to be grateful for the gifts we have in our lives. This is by no accident. It is a reminder to us of how much we depend on each other for our very livelihood. Let’s give an example of this:
I like to think that over my career I have done a lot to improve myself and my position in life. I have a good job and I work remotely. Yet my relative success is due to hundreds of thousands of people each day. Each morning, I get up, get dressed, grab my coffee and a bowl of cereal, log in to my computer and start working. Let’s examine just that piece of my day to give an example of what I am talking about.
First, I work from home. I did not build my home, my home was built by a lot of people who were employed with a construction firm. I got up from my bed – one that I bought and was manufactured by several people, then distributed to stores who sold the bed to me. I get dressed. I did not make my clothes. I don’t even know how to make clothes, nor do I have the proper equipment. My clothes were manufactured in various places around the world by hundreds of people I will never meet.
Second, I grab my coffee and a bowl of cereal. I did not grow the coffee beans, did not pick them, and didn’t even grind them! They were grown in South America, picked by hundreds of workers, ground and packed in bags by hundreds more workers. Same situation with my cereal and milk. These foods I did not make, they were grown, made, packaged, and distributed by more workers I will never meet.
Third, I go to my computer, log in, and begin work. By now I’m sure you’ll guess that I did not build my computer. My computer was assembled from thousands of parts manufactured all around the world. I can log in because I have internet service. I did not lay the fiber needed for this, nor did I launch the satellites, nor do I maintain any of the networks that allow me to log in re0motely. This was accomplished by literally thousands of people around the world.
In short, I did not “pull myself up by my bootstraps.” The rugged individualism concept is truly a myth. Without the support of hundreds of thousands of unknown individuals, I would not have a home and would not be able to log into work. If I had to build my own home, find/hunt my own food, make my own clothes and build and maintain my own equipment, I wouldn’t have any time left to do the job that I have. We truly all depend on each other every day for almost everything that we have and do.
Our success as a species and a civilization itself relies on this interdependence. We began to truly evolve into the society we have today when we started gathering in groups and cooperating. Working together we had people who would grow and supply our food, others who would manufacture goods such as clothes, tools and weapons, and still more that would gather these goods for distribution and sale. This is our strength and our versatility. One human, only having certain skills is much less likely to survive than a group of humans sharing their skills. And when a big strong aggressive man – idealized in our society – threatened these communities of people, he was no match for their combined might.
Our interdependence has only grown as society has advanced. Almost all of us have vocations which serve others in some sort of way. Yes, it is important for us to celebrate our personal successes, and certainly our hard work and our life choices have a large impact on where we are in life currently and where we will go in the future. However, we must never forget all the millions of people whose hard work has enabled our ability to succeed. It is possible to be proud of our own hard work and also be grateful for the benefits of our interconnected society.
When we pause and consider all of the things that others, especially those others whom we have never met, have done to allow us to pursue the success we have found, we gain humility. If we did not cooperate with each other on a global level, we would not have had the industrial revolution, medical advances or any of the creature comforts we enjoy in the 21st Century. If everyone was on their own “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps,” none of us would have the time for anything other than our most basic needs of shelter and food.
Yet, periodically in our history, those in our society who have the most money and power, will hold their giant egos out to the masses and declare that they are somehow superior, and it was their superiority that gave them the power and money that they have. Many of those who hold this superior view of themselves inherited their fortunes from their family business and did not really build their wealth on their own. Even if they are truly “self-made” they still did not do it alone. They have employees who build for them, think for them, create for them. It is an insult to all of those people to say “I alone did this.” It also implies an ownership of all the people that work for them and contribute their intellectual and physical power in order to manufacture the product or service that makes the oligarch rich. Even worse, those people who contribute so much time and energy into their work are often looked at as numbers – mere commodities to do with as one wills – rather than human beings with needs and lives and feelings. History also shows us that when oligarchs treat the masses in such an impersonal way, there is a breaking point where people demand to be treated better and to have a larger share in the wealth they produce. They remember that the rich stay rich through the permission of the working class; through their continued hard work and economic support. When that happens, the oligarchs quickly find out that, without this labor, nothing gets done and they lose both their money and power. They also discover that they are totally dependent on the people around them who they consider “lesser” to buy their product or service. If that buying power is withheld, the oligarch loses their fortune quickly.
Humility and gratitude help to keep all of this in perspective. We must consider that the comforts, wealth and happiness we enjoy are reliant on the support of many people around the world every day. We can recognize our accomplishments and be proud of them, but we must also recognize our interdependence. When we truly think about how much the world must cooperate in order for society to grow and flourish, we gain a new appreciation for every individual, and a respect for all the different types of work that are done each day.
Tony Hornsby 
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