Requiem For a Word

Yes I know, I shall never be able to rehabilitate the term 'individualism'. No, too many have maligned and mistrusted it, and abused it with unwary connotations. So here, too, I see, individualism being accused when in fact it is egalitarianism that's the problem:

They recognize that in solo scriptura the individual is his own final interpretive authority, and thus this position reduces to individualism. And individualism by its very nature leads to disunity and division, as each person does whatever seems right in his own eyes.

It never seems to occur to anyone that an individualist might actually choose to respect an authority, but in fact a true individualist very likely would. There's this concept called division of labor, and even in the realm of thought we think about different things, so there are people out there who have a natural authority (compared to me) about things like soccer, knitting, etc... And, of course, we can easily extend this concept into the spiritual world and recognize spiritual authority.

The people who believe people are equal are the people who will refuse a spiritual authority. It has nothing to do with being an individualist. In fact, it's more likely to happen among socialists, because they love spreading the gospel of equality. Those are the folks who equate one person's interpretation of the gospel as exactly equal to that of the Magisterium. For if we are all equal, then education, appointment, and anointing matter not one whit! It is the doctrine of equality that ultimately leads to the insanity of holding all opinions as equally valid, thus rendering unity in doctrine impossible.

Okay, so I know you still want to denigrate individualism. You can't resist the urge to punch it and kick it and give it a bad reputation. But please, in the meantime, please tell somebody their opinions aren't worth the neurons they are processed through?