Individuals may exhibit a tendency to believe that their own judgment, values, and decisions work the best for that individual, as opposed to the judgment, values and decisions of some other objective authority, such as the rules and tenets of a particular organization, or a collective. They see the welfare of a group as subordinate to the welfare of the individuals within that group. This tendency is called Individualism.

Individualism coexists with collectivism* as poles of a spectrum, not simply as one of two choices. Thus, an individual may be extremely individualistic, moderately individualistic, or somewhat individualistic, and so conversely somewhat collectivistic, moderately collectivistic, or extremely collectivistic.

Individualism does not necessarily suggest isolation. Indeed, an individual has no one to be an individualist towards if there is no else around. Individualism does suggest a tendency not to join groups that require their members follow the orders of the group of their own predilections, but it does not necessarily interfere with joining a group where the members are still at liberty to take their own actions.

Reccomended Sites

Lots of people smarter than myself have been defining individualism longer than I have been alive. Thus, while it is of course right and proper for an individualist such as myself to write my own definition, I must admit there are a few others. The best one I have found so far is the Catholic Encyclopedia Definition. Also, you might want to check out the Galaxy Gulch, the individualist hang-out on H2G2.