alias_sqbr

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/

On the one hand (my upbringing says), we all need to pull together and form a cooperative collective, and should bond with the Everyday Little Guy etc. On the other, since most people aren't counter-culture and left-wing, the Everyday Little Guy is wrong and we need to stick to our internal sense of right and not be sucked into the beliefs of the culture around us.

Thanks for explaining that so clearly! It explains a lot of stuff I have never understood about left wing peeps.

slowly realising how much of my "individuality" (and most of materialist humanist thought) is just a manifestation of the same WASP society

Oh gosh yes, whole university departments have devoted their energies to exploring the roots of individualism in Protestant thought and early-industrial systems.

I am deeply uncomfortable opening my mind to any opinion with even a whiff of religious assumptions, and this makes it hard to engage with a lot of aboriginal writings

Hmm. It might (and I stress the might) help if you took some time to understand your own culture in terms of cultural assumptions. A lot of the stuff we take for granted is in fact just as rooted in mystical beliefs and values as it is in any other culture, but being insiders we are oblivious to this. The classic example I always use is maps. We think of Western maps as an 'accurate' representation of the earth as it really is, and thus completely different from something like an aboriginal painting. But if you stop and think about what we show on our maps, and what we don't, what we name, what we give prominence to - it is telling you just as much about our society and world view as any other piece of art. And in that way it is actually very similar to an aboriginal artwork. I found once I had been taught to see all cultural output as influenced by society, the output of other people's cultures, even their religions, felt far less obscure.

In answer to your general point, I think balancing the needs of individuals with the shorthand convenience of groups is something we all struggle with.