I think a lot of millennials, myself included, are "people pleasers", who push our own needs aside to make others happy. Again and again.

This works, until we burn out and crash. I certainly have - I spent most of 2024 severely burnt out, and part of it was not protecting my time and setting healthy boundaries.

There's a balance between serving others and taking time to rest. Existing in community takes sacrifice and sometimes that means setting your own needs aside. But being in community also means that others can step up to help you when you need to rest, sharpen your saw, etc. People pleasing and setting poor boundaries in the context of (American) individualism means being a jerk.

I read somewhere (can't find it now, I'm literally on an operating table) that people in more community-focused cultures were more comfortable taking alone time. Because they know that if they take time, things aren't going to fall apart without them. The community will be there to welcome them back in, and nobody will be upset for them taking the time that they need.

Just some off the cuff thoughts.

When we need exactly the opposite in today's environment - empathy, more in-person connection, helping the vulnerable.

Again, these values are timeless.

The article begins with a good premise, but in the later phases it tries to brush this off as mostly a right-wing phenomenon; whereas plenty of individualist streaks are also seen within left-wing movements. Of course, a deeper analysis is not possible without devolving the discussion into yet another “their barbarous wastes” discussion[1].

In my view, modern society makes it too easy to seclude yourself from people and ideas that are opposed to yours, and there’s a lot of people focussing on individual achievements and winner-takes-all mindsets instead of trying to see how they can be valuable to their community and build relationships putting aside disagreements.

[1] https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/our-blessed-homeland-thei...