The thing I've always found fascinating is that this cultural ethos is in direct tension with social organization. Despite this narrative arc of the primacy of

The thing I've always found fascinating is that this cultural ethos is in direct tension with social organization. Despite this narrative arc of the primacy of individuality we still (quite predictably) shun people who manage to actually achieve it and generally celebrate homogeny among our cohort. I couldn't enumerate the negative effects this inherent contradiction may have produced, but it seems unlikely to be a list of zero length.