A Google Search: "Who first decided that individual success was more important than communal success?"
Dateline: 4:35pm Sunday, 2 Novenber, 2025, Melbourne, Australia. I queried Google with this deliberately simplistic question... who first decided that individual success was more important than communal success? Google's AI gave this response... There is no single individual who definitively "decided" that individual success was more important than communal success, as this idea evolved gradually through philosophical, political, and economic thought over centuries. The emphasis on individualism as a central value became prominent in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly through thinkers like John Locke and Adam Smith, who championed individual rights and self-interest as foundational to societal progress. Alexis de Tocqueville observed in the early 1800s that American society was deeply fascinated with individualism and entrepreneurship, recognizing both its potential for greatness and its risks to the common good. While individualism gained traction as a domi...