What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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Parodite
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What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Parodite »

Mr.P. coined the term (in the polygamy thread) rugged individualism. What is a rugged individualist?

I imagine a rugged individualist as somebody who wants everybody mind their own business. S/he doesn't want to be interfered with. Live and let live, to each his own. Small central gvt etc.

Which is why Mr.P. puzzles me. No doubt he considers himself a rugged individualist. Yet he bothers a lot with other people, especially democrats, liberals and Obama. Why do they bother him so much? He could easily choose to don't give a damn about all the crazies in the environment. And just attend to his private property, his family and gun collection. Remain entirely indifferent to his wider environment, and just take it as any wider environment where you go hunting.

Indians in the Amazon live like that. The forest is full of enemies, juicy fruits and prey to hunt. No need to get political about it, hysterical, let alone paranoid-psychotic. It is pointless to talk to snakes or plants explaining them that their politics sucks. You would become the village fool of the rain forest.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by YMix »

Rugged individualists are the crazies in the environment. I doubt that Amazonian tribals see themselves as anything other than members of small communities. The idea of individualism has probably not occurred to them.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Parodite »

YMix wrote:Rugged individualists are the crazies in the environment.

Real
rugged individualists are usually good people who just mind their own business and respect borders / territorial deals.
I doubt that Amazonian tribals see themselves as anything other than members of small communities. The idea of individualism has probably not occurred to them.
Replace tribe with a family.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by YMix »

Parodite wrote:Real rugged individualists are usually good people who just mind their own business and respect borders / territorial deals.

Replace tribe with a family.
REAL rugged individualists don't have families, nor friends. They live alone on hills and in forests, in fear and terror that other people might help them and thus undermine either their ruggedness or their individualism. Every now and then, rugged and individualistic men and women meet, mate and go their separate ways. Rugged individualistic women do not give birth. The children are expected to come out on their own and start earning a living right away. :)
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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Ants who fend off an attack by an overpowering predator do so by forming a socialist union army. Individuals are sacrificed so the colony can survive. So many crazy survival strategies in the forest..
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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YMix wrote:REAL rugged individualists don't have families, nor friends. They live alone on hills and in forests, in fear and terror that other people might help them and thus undermine either their ruggedness or their individualism. Every now and then, rugged and individualistic men and women meet, mate and go their separate ways. Rugged individualistic women do not give birth. The children are expected to come out on their own and start earning a living right away. :)
As long as they (the Grizzly Adams in this world) survive.. why would anyone be bothered. :) And when they die...it even bothers less people. They have a near-zero bother index.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

The Unibomber was a rugged individualist. It's a euphemism for antisocial personality disorder.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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Nonc Hilaire wrote:The Unibomber was a rugged individualist. It's a euphemism for antisocial personality disorder.
That's just a smear. Might as well call all politicans psychopaths and journalists bloodsuckers.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by noddy »

its all a bit straw man im afraid - id consider the poorer bits of rural eastern europe rugged individualists - its not about not having a community, its about small communities making it work without outside help,you cant just drop your bundle and wait for government to save you.

we have been over this territory many many times, im comfy with the fact that folks from high density humanity can only look at low density people with a certain level of snark.

thats nice.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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noddy wrote:its all a bit straw man im afraid - id consider the poorer bits of rural eastern europe rugged individualists - its not about not having a community, its about small communities making it work without outside help,you cant just drop your bundle and wait for government to save you.
Ummm, back in the dark and communistic days, pretty much everyone in Eastern Europe was a rugged individualist. Even today, it's pretty hard to get the local authorities to do anything for you (unless of course you have relations or can bribe your way). Unemployment aid in Romania is RON 250 per month, about EUR 55. Not something you can live on.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by noddy »

YMix wrote:
noddy wrote:its all a bit straw man im afraid - id consider the poorer bits of rural eastern europe rugged individualists - its not about not having a community, its about small communities making it work without outside help,you cant just drop your bundle and wait for government to save you.
Ummm, back in the dark and communistic days, pretty much everyone in Eastern Europe was a rugged individualist. Even today, it's pretty hard to get the local authorities to do anything for you (unless of course you have relations or can bribe your way). Unemployment aid in Romania is RON 250 per month, about EUR 55. Not something you can live on.
that was exactly my point.

all y'all (sm!) still have lots of rugged individualists and its not about strawmen, erm, mountain men :)

some of america and australia had that way of life taken away by sneering interventionists, breaking up communities and stealing children and this created a backlash of sorts... being stuck in a housing complex ghetto isnt really a step up.

i cant find articles easily on how this happened - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_ad ... _Australia is part of it but the entire story covers lots more cases - bezerk savant said simmilar happened in america.
Last edited by noddy on Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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YMix wrote:
noddy wrote:its all a bit straw man im afraid - id consider the poorer bits of rural eastern europe rugged individualists - its not about not having a community, its about small communities making it work without outside help,you cant just drop your bundle and wait for government to save you.
Ummm, back in the dark and communistic days, pretty much everyone in Eastern Europe was a rugged individualist. Even today, it's pretty hard to get the local authorities to do anything for you (unless of course you have relations or can bribe your way). Unemployment aid in Romania is RON 250 per month, about EUR 55. Not something you can live on.
Is there any chance of a democratic majority in Rumania to get the predator corps and oligarchs out/under control? If they own all the fertile vallies in Rumania...seems no room left for the rugged individuals to live off their land. Is it allowed to go hunting in the vast Rumanian forests?
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by YMix »

Parodite wrote:Is there any chance of a democratic majority in Rumania to get the predator corps and oligarchs out/under control?
Slim to none. If there's one thing we're (too) good at, it's putting up with things, enduring hardship. Activism and initiative are rare here and sound organization is even rarer.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Endovelico »

A rugged individualist is someone who doesn't give a damn about anyone else. Who thinks he is entitled to exploit everybody else as long as he can get away with it. However rugged individualists can accept associating with others. It's called a wolf pack... If conditions are right, rugged individualists are prone to eating their own pack associates...
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Parodite »

Endovelico wrote:A rugged individualist is someone who doesn't give a damn about anyone else. Who thinks he is entitled to exploit everybody else as long as he can get away with it. However rugged individualists can accept associating with others. It's called a wolf pack... If conditions are right, rugged individualists are prone to eating their own pack associates...
A bit like communists in the former USSR? Or post-USSR Puting gangsters?
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

Parodite wrote:
Endovelico wrote:A rugged individualist is someone who doesn't give a damn about anyone else. Who thinks he is entitled to exploit everybody else as long as he can get away with it. However rugged individualists can accept associating with others. It's called a wolf pack... If conditions are right, rugged individualists are prone to eating their own pack associates...
A bit like communists in the former USSR? Or post-USSR Puting gangsters?
The OP was about Mr. P.' use of the term. I'm losing focus. Mr. P needs to submit a definition.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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Nonc Hilaire wrote:
Parodite wrote:
Endovelico wrote:A rugged individualist is someone who doesn't give a damn about anyone else. Who thinks he is entitled to exploit everybody else as long as he can get away with it. However rugged individualists can accept associating with others. It's called a wolf pack... If conditions are right, rugged individualists are prone to eating their own pack associates...
A bit like communists in the former USSR? Or post-USSR Puting gangsters?
The OP was about Mr. P.' use of the term. I'm losing focus. Mr. P needs to submit a definition.
Indeed. Confusion is the beginning of clarity.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by manolo »

Folks,

I'm a rugged individualist.

Alex.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

manolo wrote:Folks,

I'm a rugged individualist.

Alex.
Go for it. You can wear the same underwear for four days with proper rotation :D
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by kmich »

"Rugged individualism" is a term coined by Herbert Hoover in the 1928 presidential election. Although addressing the previous dominance of the government in the control of production in WW I and the state ownership of business, it has since been employed as a tired cliche to promote a false, binary choice between individual and collective accountability and to deny the historical role of our common institutions in our fortunes, good or bad.

We Americans nevertheless like to see ourselves as self made Davy Crocketts wearing animal products from our own hunting on our heads. After all, Donald Trump wears a dead muskrat on his. His "self-made" promotion and related narcissistic unflappability are doing quite well in recent polls.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Simple Minded »

kmich wrote:"Rugged individualism" is a term coined by Herbert Hoover in the 1928 presidential election. Although addressing the previous dominance of the government in the control of production in WW I and the state ownership of business, it has since been employed as a tired cliche to promote a false, binary choice between individual and collective accountability and to deny the historical role of our common institutions in our fortunes, good or bad.

We Americans nevertheless like to see ourselves as self made Davy Crocketts wearing animal products from our own hunting on our heads. After all, Donald Trump wears a dead muskrat on his. His "self-made" promotion and related narcissistic unflappability are doing quite well in recent polls.
so you are assuming or asserting the term "rugged" applies to hair styles? ;)
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Simple Minded »

Life is so full of irony!

individualist..... now there is a term that will never attain a commonly accepted definition.......

If any two people agree on a common definition, by definition, neither one of them can be an individualist. And since one of life's primary maxims is:

"It takes one to know one!"

An intellectual black hole gents........ stay back!
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

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Nonc Hilaire wrote:
manolo wrote:Folks,

I'm a rugged individualist.

Alex.
Go for it. You can wear the same underwear for four days with proper rotation :D
lol
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by manolo »

Nonc Hilaire wrote:
manolo wrote:Folks,

I'm a rugged individualist.

Alex.
Go for it. You can wear the same underwear for four days with proper rotation :D
Nonc,

Underwear?

Alex.
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Re: What does it mean to be a rugged individualist?

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

manolo wrote:
Nonc Hilaire wrote:
manolo wrote:Folks,

I'm a rugged individualist.

Alex.
Go for it. You can wear the same underwear for four days with proper rotation :D
Nonc,

Underwear?

Alex.
1st day normal. Day 2 put the back in front. Days 3&4 turn inside out and repeat.

Rugged and individual. :lol:
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”

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