rugged individualism
2
8.1
- noun
- /ˈrʌɡɪd ˌɪndɪˈvɪdʒuəlɪzəm/
- US
:
individualismo robusto
- It is the party that has long defended "rugged individualism" and is accused of protecting callous self-interest.
- rugged individualism and self-reliance
- American values of rugged individualism
- tradition of rugged individualism
Now, he doesn't mean individualism in the sense of rugged individualism, you know, the sort of thing that Americans tend to like to look back to or have in movies.
- Now, he doesn't mean individualism in the sense of rugged individualism, you know, the sort of thing that Americans tend to like to look back to or have in movies.
- We over indexed on rugged individualism, We over indexed on short termism, and we over indexed on heroizing Jack Welch and GE, right?
Examples
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Objectivism bears similarity to Republican laissez-faire rugged individualism, as it is associated with Herbert Hoover and the 1929 stock market crash of the Great Depression.
Blog text (24) -
And that, my friend Matt, is the USA's addiction to rugged individualism.
Blog text (6) -
This is going to be particularly hard for a nation brought up on the myth of rugged individualism.
Blog text (26) -
Philosophy: It's hard to be the party of rugged individualism while also trying to be the party of fate and "God's will."
Blog text (22) -
Conservatism is supposed to be the political outgrowth of rugged individualism.
Blog text (16) -
The tobacco industry has targeted young rural men, especially smokeless tobacco users, with appealing imagery of rugged individualism.
Blog text (11) -
That attempt at national social insurance was diametrically opposed to the American glorification of rugged individualism and personal self-sufficiency.
Academic text (2002) -
Americans are proud of their rugged individualism and the virtues of self-reliance and courage it fosters.
Academic text (2002) -
The future Supreme Court justice came to his dual beliefs in rugged individualism and activist government after rising from poverty on the strength of hard work, keen intellect, and fortunate circumstance.
Academic text (1993) -
Many Americans believe in rugged individualism, seeing it as essential for personal success and freedom.
Synonyms
27
8.8
Belief that people should have as much personal freedom as possible with little government control
17
4.1
Being able to do things and meet needs without help from others
4
5.3
A belief that people should be free to run businesses without government control
Antonyms
How Individualistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective+noun combination: 'rugged' conveys toughness/robust self-reliance and 'individualism' denotes emphasis on the individual, so together they yield a robust form of self-reliance or preference for individuals to compete with little interference. This compositional pattern is regular and cross-linguistically accessible, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the basic meaning (though finer political nuances may require context).
Etymology
Rugged individualism paints the picture of a lone settler on rough land: rugged means rough and hard, and individualism means acting alone. One popular image is that these people had to manage by themselves, so the phrase came to mean 'the belief that people should be self-reliant and not depend on government'.