Alors que l'individualisme a une forte connotation négative en France (toujours associé à l'égoisme), pour vous c'est une valeur fondamentale (la liberté)...Une société individualiste est elle une société idéale?

I think in the US, individualism is what society likes to promote, but in practice, that is not the way it is. In general, people do not accept what is different from them. Although someone may see individualism as positive, they may not realise that when someone does something much differnt from them, they are expressing their individualism and it is not something to fear or hate. I think we also have a different meaning to the word possibly. Individualism here is not usually related to thinking of yourself, or being selfish, it is merely and expression of yourself and how you are different. It is basically being true to your own feelings and thoughts. I believe that it is generally thought of as "ideal" here.

What is the foundation for your views for individualism? What I mean is how do you define individualism? I can see where the connotation of indiviudalism as selfish comes from and to some extent I agree. I just want more information to understand your views more clearly.

While beeing here for only two months, I have already noticed a significant difference in a way people treat individualism in the United States and Europe. In the United States people are much more tolerant towards individual differences and support diversity. This helps people to be not afraid of expressing themselves.

I totally agree that individualism is more of an ideal than reality in the US. Americans are definitely more tolerant than Europeans, yet they tend to cling to specific (exclusive) groups - clubs, the infamous support groups, religious communities, etc. People identify themselves with specific organizations. It is very interesting for me to see how tolerance and minority support (the embodiments of individualism) turn into segregation (every definition is exclusive; the gay bar is not open to heterosexuals; not to mention affirmative action - people are lABELED with their ethnicity, religion, social status). Blah, blah. Ok, maybe I am just playing with concepts here :) But still, I am looking hard, and I cannot find individuals here... Yes, there are people with piercings and green hair, but they all hang out with photocopies :)

I think individualism is an important value in the american society: as each individual pursues his/her own interests, everybody becomes happier in general (of course, there are conflicts but in theory democracy should fix them). This culture encourages the principle that each individual is the ultimate responsible for his/her own life, not as much being egoist (although it may be fair to consider that) as not to rely on somebody else or to accept somebody else mandate without questioning (since I am a foreign student this may not be the most correct view).

Even though in principle individualism means respecting other people's right to live differently, in practice for many it's all about safeguarding their own right to live differently, or "expressing their individualism". Expressing individualism usually means disobeying the traditions and the norms of the society for no good reason. These norms and traditions are what connect people together; that's why we see words like "loneliness", "solitude", or "isolement" associated with individualism. Also, if there's something in us that we can change easily to please our parents or others who love us, then refusing to change just to express individualism is selfish.

I wonder why french students are silent in the discussion about the word "individualism". Is it because of the strong negative association with this word or there are some other reasons?

Je crois que le fait de respecter les différences des autres nous parait tellement évident qu'on ne ressent pas le besoin de nous étendre sur le sujet. Je ne pense pas que les Français soient moins tolérants que les Américains, simplement vous revendiquez davantage votre ouverture d'esprit sur ce point que nous, comme une fierté nationale.

J'étais une fois en voiture avec une Américaine à New York qui m'a dit, en voyant passer un black: "Je trouve que les noirs sont des gens comme nous et qu'il faut les respecter"; je n'ai pas compris l'intéret pour elle d'affirmer une telle évidence et n'ai rien répondu.

Pour répondre à Eugénie, je pense que si nous ne parlons pas beaucoup sur le mot "individualisme", c'est peut être parce que ce mot est très ambigu. Je ne sais pas trop quoi en penser...On peut tout comprendre par individualisme. Des choses très positives: la liberté de chacun de se distinguer par son mérite, sa personnalité etc., mais aussi des choses négatives comme l'égoisme, la vanité, l'orgueil.
Je pense que l'individualisme est une valeur importante en amérique, parce que c'est le pays de la liberté, de l'expression de chaque personnalité, du capitalisme...D'ailleurs, on le voit dans les réponses que vous avez donné (par exemple Eugénie et Ian)
Ici, c'est une notion qui met plus mal à l'aise, car le pays est, je pense, très "socialiste" dans sa mentalité (j'ai l'impression en france que réussir une carrière ou se démarquer d'un groupe est encore "mal vu". Par exemple, ici, les gens ont presque honte de dire qu'ils gagnent beaucoup d'argent).
Eugénie, c'est peut être pour ça qu'il n'y a pas beaucoup de réponses des français?