Countering individualism
From a video by Frameworks Institute
[Note - although focusing on U.S. culture, many of the points made apply to the UK].
Individualism is the notion that our lives and outcomes are the exclusive result of the choices we make and how hard we try. Want to be rich? Work harder. Want to go to work? Find childcare. Want to be healthy? Exercise.
Individualism dominates culture. It’s in the headlines we read, the content we consume on social media, the advertisements that flood our communities - it’s the tune that’s playing in surround-sound.
It's not that individualism is categorically wrong. Our choices do matter. But when it comes to how we think about social issues, the dominance of this mindset is problematic. If individualism is the primary lens through which we see the world, then the environments, policies, and infrastructure that shape our realities fall completely out of view. Individualistic thinking leads us to draw incomplete conclusions.
And it sometimes surfaces in places where it really just doesn't fit. For instance, when we tell people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, we're totally missing the reality that the racist, classist, sexist, and ableist structures around us make that easier for some people than others.
So what is that story leaving out? What can’t be seen when we hear and tell tales of a brave hero who overcame all odds? How can we refocus the conversation on the odds instead of the overcoming?
Shifting mindsets on individualism is an ambitious goal, but a necessary and achievable one.
Here are a few tips to help cultivate more systemic ways of thinking:
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Widen the lens on social problems. Instead of telling stories where success or failure is a result of a person's choices, zoom out to show a broader picture of the forces at play in shaping these decisions. By bringing those external factors into view, we enable people to think more expansively about why the world is the way it is and what we can do to make it better. For example, someone might think that a person is unemployed because they didn't try hard enough, without considering factors like job availability, discrimination, or access to education.
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Give systemic solutions the spotlight. If agency is the ability to make a choice, a systemic solution is something that determines the choices we have available to us. Make sure to talk about what those systemic solutions can look like. Take the issue of tobacco for example and the health disparities associated with it. When talking about this issue, we shouldn't just focus on the need to help people quit smoking. We also need to explain how advertisers intentionally flood certain groups with harmful messaging. We can't expect people to demand systemic solutions if we only talk about individual problems.
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Emphasize our collective responsibility. Don't leave people with the impression that the only way to make change is by helping people make better choices. Talk about policies as collective decisions and highlight the choices we need to make as a society to achieve meaningful change. For example, encouraging people to consume less is one way to mitigate climate change, but we also need to get specific about the government institutions, corporations, and the decision makers who hold the power to make change at scale.
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From a video by Frameworks Institute, 30/09/2025