As I was reading through our last lesson, I immediately felt connected to the concept of individualism. North America, excluding Mexico, scored high in this category at 81. Similar to golf, countries should strive to score lower on the scale that references individualism. For reference, countries with lower scores and thus, lower rates of individualism have higher preferences of teamwork, unity, and the overall good of everyone compared to individualistic cultures that are centered around individual people putting themselves first and making their goals (Penn State World Campus, 2021).
When I saw that North American has such a high score, thus emphasizing the importance Americans put on individual choices, competitive markets, achieving success no matter the consequences of others set in and I was able to connect the concept to the pandemic. Months ago I saw on an article or the news the connection American individualistic culture had on the way the pandemic had been handled.
In individualism, it is all about the individual and not the collective whole of a community or country. This sounds simple enough but it even affects the choices we make on a day-to-day basis because we, as a whole, care more about ourselves than the benefit of others and the greater good of a community. When Covid-19 hit, organizations such as WHO and the CDC came out with recommendations that consisted of staying at home a much as possible, wearing a mask and social distancing when you do have to go out, and now getting a vaccine. America had an especially hard time following these simple recommendations and part of the reason, I believe, is because of how individualistic we are. The emphasis of the precautions put into place was to protect others with weak immune systems from getting sick, yet that didn’t stop Americans from refusing to wear a mask up to the point of physically assaulting public workers when asked to do so or being more concerned about the feeling of a mask vs. accidentally infecting someone. The risk of putting another in harm’s way was also not enough for people, including celebrities, to have “covid parties” just like they would have before there was a pandemic.
And the result of these individualistic actions: one of the highest rates of Covid-19 in the world, and some of the highest death rates to follow. Hospitals became too full to take on new patients, even ones that are not sick with covid. Families lose loved ones and while they are going through grief, they also now have medical/funeral expenses on a lower income caused by not having the deceased member to work anymore, and losing jobs/hours to the pandemic. This is especially alarming because we did/are doing worse than some third-world countries that had less access to healthcare and less ability to get ahold of protective equipment such as masks.
While it is okay to have individualistic tendencies or some aspects of it mixed into cultural beliefs, having too much leads to selfish mindsets and behavior, as seen in the recent 18 months.
References
Penn State World Campus (2021). Lesson 09: Central America and Mexico. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847697.
Julia Poston says
Really great post! I would have to agree that American’s do tend to be for the most part individualistic, and less inclined towards being a collective community or country. This has lead us to be selfish and inconsiderate of what has been going on with Covid and the rest of the world. A lot of the countries have just now started to fully even re-open, while some American’s never had to even fully isolate or social distance. Individualism can be a strength for a lot of people, but like you said, it can also make us selfish and uncaring for others. It’s important to consider the situation and pick the moments when individualism is needed and which moments we all need to come together for. It will be hard for other countries to have respect for us when we have so little respect for each other and are willingly putting each other at risk. I skimmed through some of the CDC’s reporting as well and was very surprised to see some of the statistics, but a lot of the other countries seemed to have been impacted about the same with people responding almost in the same way.
Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Laura says
I enjoyed reading your blog. However, I have to agree with you that people were selfish after the pandemic started. You describe the very well Individualism in the pandemic. I know it was hard for us to experience the new pandemic. WHO and CDC got involved and tried their best to protect us from being exposed.
As you described this, “America had an especially hard time following these simple recommendations and part of the reason, I believe, is because of how individualistic we are.” It is the perfect description! First, Americans struggled to follow the recommendations, and now things are harder with vaccines. It’s a shame how Americans reacted to the suggestions and did not cooperate to protect each other. They are trying to mandate everyone, even vaccinated, to use masks, but some people are not cooperating and refusing to use them.
I hope I’m not changing the topic, but I feel it’s essential to bring this up since the pandemic was new and unexpected for the world. In addition, most major cities and states provided American Sign Language interpreters during the presses. Unfortunately, the interpreters were being mocked by people who were not educated or didn’t have knowledge about the Deaf community. So they took advantage to be “fake interpreters” or acting know American Sign Language. So, people who were faking interpreters or didn’t follow the recommendations were selfish in the pandemic.
kdd7 says
First, I’d just like to say that I really enjoyed reading your post. Your approach to the topic of Individualism was thought provoking and I particularly appreciate your analysis of why you thought American’s have a hard time with mask mandates and vaccinations.
I would personally really love to see an analysis of acceptance of COVID-19 mandates by country by individualism score. I would also love to see an analysis of acceptance of COVID-19 mandates by state by state individualism score and overlay the states majority political affiliation. If that is possible, I would be willing to bet that one political party is severely more selfish (sorry individualistic) then another.
I’ve long felt that America as a whole suffers from a lack of compassion for community and it wasn’t until reading your post about Individualism that I realized that there is language for this feeling. As someone who’s had the opportunity to travel to countries that score lower on the individualism chart, I’ve always been struck by the overwhelming sense of community that is visually, mentally, morally, and physically apparent. As an American the feeling was foreign and uncomfortable at first but as you continue to be exposed to it, it becomes liberating to say the least. It puts into perspective the need for wholesale American community reform or improvement.
If people took more stock into caring for each other maybe we’d have a fighting chance to keep a good thing going.
wje116 says
Hello Olivia,
I enjoyed reading your post, I thought it to be an interesting take on your viewpoint of individualism, and how it relates to Covid-19. In your post you mention “similar to golf, countries should strive to score lower on the scale that references individualism”.
I don’t think anyone can argue the notion that the United States and Canada score high on the scale of individualism (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Country-scores-for-individualism-index_tbl1_334509709). The aspect I find interesting is the focus on the United States specifically.
For instance Colombia and Brazil score low on the individualism scale yet both have had high rates of Covid-19 transmission and death. And many countries have either limited their confirmation of cases (Russia/China), or lack the resources to testing (large parts of Africa) https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-how-covid-19-is-spreading-around-the-world-12061281).
I agree with many of your examples of people who can do better for the collective. For instance I work in a line of business that was considered necessary for continuance during the early stages of the pandemic, and as an individual chose to wear a mask, and use precautions. Luckily I did not contract Covid, and received the vaccine very early by choice. With that being said I followed the news and Covid-19 impact, and would argue that around the world countries have encountered many of the same issues as the USA.
I think the United States because of the resources we have, probably puts us at the forefront of reporting cases/transmission etc… And I do believe this also leads to more reliable statistics when it comes to confirmed cases.
This was a great post, and definitely has me thinking about the concept of individualism and how it relates to the pandemic. While I would have to read more to be better informed you may be on to something.
From your vantage-point I have a few questions for you:
Do you think the reactions are politically motivated?
Do you think the responses by Americans differ on generational levels?
What are some ways you think people in the USA could have done better?
Once again great post, and very thought provoking!
Bill Egan
References
Penn State World Campus (2021). Lesson 09: Central America and Mexico. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847697.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-how-covid-19-is-spreading-around-the-world-12061281
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Country-scores-for-individualism-index_tbl1_334509709
kmb7437 says
I am very interested in the sources for some of your statements. I went to the CDC website and the press release for the call to wear masks was on Tuesday, July 14, 2020 which was 4 months into the pandemic, and after things started to open back up. I did find another website (npr.org) that said they recommended it in April, but that was still a month after the shut down and a couple months after COVID had been known to have reached the United States. Also, on the Dallas Morning News, there is an article that says “After months of maintaining that healthy people didn’t need to wear masks in public to prevent the coronavirus, the country’s top public health officials reversed their position last week, recommending that everyone wear a face mask in public places where social distances in difficult” (Marfin, 2020). Even this statement is a little vague as it only addresses mask wearing when social distancing is difficult.
When you talk about hospitals becoming to full to take on new patients, even ones that were not sick with COVID, is that during the start of the pandemic, or more recent? At the start when the world shut down in March 2020, COVID was spreading and some hospitals, especially in states like New York and California had issues but that was no one’s fault but the virus at that point. Most people were staying at home. The virus was out there and had started spreading at events before we had realized it had reached the United States. People were returning from cruises sick and going home to their families. The New York Times noted in December of 2020 that only a third of American’s lived in a place where hospitals were running low on beds (Leatherby et al 2020).
I am also curious of the frequency of fights about masks. While I am certain they did happen, I also think your statement makes it seem a lot more common place then it was. I understand the idea that it is the cultural beliefs that have led to selfish mindsets or behaviors, but you are judging a country on 18 months of instability. You throw in the emotion turmoil of the election, four years of political fighting, pandemic, lockdowns, death, unemployment, recession, insecurities, supply shortages, I could go on and on and you expect people to get a little stressed out. When it comes to the world ending, people tend to lean towards self-preservation. That was the reason there were so many shortages at the beginning of the pandemic.
There were also concerns about government overreach and authority, the misinformation that is out there, political agendas, and how individuals have publicly “flip flopped” their stance on issues regarding the pandemic. At the start of the pandemic Dr. Fauci was saying no masks, then we should where masks; at the debate Vice President Harris was saying she won’t take Trump’s vaccine and doesn’t trust it, then saying everyone should take the vaccine once she was in office; the CDC said fully vaccinate people no longer have to mask, then they do again; even at my job my boss said she would NEVER require us to vaccinate and then overnight she changed her mind and we have a vaccination mandate.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, July 14). CDC calls on Americans to wear masks to prevent covid-19 spread. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0714-americans-to-wear-masks.html.
Leatherby, L., Keefe, J., Tompkins, L., Smart, C., & Conlen, M. (2020, December 9). ‘there’s no place for them to go’: I.C.U. Beds near capacity across U.S. The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/09/us/covid-hospitals-icu-capacity.html.
Marfin, C. (2020, May 6). Why did the recommendation on wearing face masks change? curious Texas investigates. Dallas News. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/04/08/why-did-the-recommendation-on-wearing-face-masks-change/.