I am not a demographic.
I am not a constituent.
I am not my race or my sex or my age or my religion.
I am not a liberal or a conservative, a Democrat or a Republican, a Protestant or Catholic or Muslim or Jehovah's Witness.
I am an Individualist.
I embody what Karl Hess called "the smallest minority of all: the minority of one."
I am a member of what Ayn Rand referred to as "the irreducible political primary: the individual."
Yes, I am an anarchist and an atheist, but those terms don't really describe who I am. Those are negative signifiers: they only describe what I'm not. I've referred to myself as a voluntarist and a humanist, and that's accurate; however, I am primarily an individualist. That description encompasses all the others.
Since I am an individualist, I am an advocate of human rights. I already stand for the rights of women against repression, of people of color against institutionalized racism, of members of the LGBT community against legalized discrimination, of pot smokers against the police, of purveyors of dangerous ideas against the censors, of peaceniks against the military industrial complex, of anyone against the state. Individualism identifies with and stands in solidarity with all these battles against the common enemy, which is authoritarian collectivism.
Activism is a personal decision, and of arguable merit, but shouldn't be something that divides us. Whether one chooses to specialize in civil rights activism or libertarian activism or LGBT activism, it shouldn't negate the fact that we're all fighting for individual human rights. If it does, then you're not really. You're fighting for group rights, which puts you in the collectivist camp.
Collectivism is the antipode of individualism, the barbaric descendent of primitive tribalism, the philosophy that individuals are useless outside of their service to the collective (which is often called the Nation, the Society, the Common Good). Collectivism requires individuals be labeled, categorized, and subverted into groups, which can then be pitted against each other, a technique which makes each group easier to manipulate, and control.
All people are individuals, but all individuals are not individualists. This leaves them susceptible to manipulative ideologies which promote lofty ideals but demand subservience and submission. Once they subvert their individualism to this ideology of control, they adopt it for themselves as proper and necessary. It is neither.
There is a disturbing element in American society that accepts the belief that some people should have the right to dictate to others what to think and do and say. This element is unified in this belief even when they disagree with others. Whether they call themselves Values Voters or Social Justice Warriors, it is essentially the same. They are anti-individualist, they are anti-human. They are totalitarian.
These people are doing the bidding of their controllers, willingly conforming to the needs and dictates of the establishment. These are the teachers and preachers and cops, the "universal soldiers", the ground troops of compliance all authoritarian regimes--whether they call themselves "People's Republics" or "Participatory Democracies"-- need to accomplish their hegemony. To do this, they must blot out any inclination toward individuation that grates against the needs of the collective. And Individualism, the philosophy, is particularly denounced.
This is why there is the move to categorize, to label, to segment. People will subvert their identity willingly to a culture, or race, or religion, before they will to a state. And when people start to think of themselves as their race or religion, they think of themselves as constituents, and they no longer address the authorities as individuals but as members of a group that needs to beseech the state for favors, or power, or mercy. And the state is more than willing to divvy out small increments of favor to their constituents, in return for their submission. Because pitting white against black, Christian against Muslim, makes them easier to corral, easier to herd. And, if necessary, slaughter.
But we aren't all white or black. We aren't all Christians or Muslims. We aren't all straight or gay or transgender. We aren't all members of the dominant culture, nor are we all members of any significant single minority. But we are all human beings; we are all individuals.
This is the only thing that "unites" us. This is the only "we" that works universally.
This doesn't mean "we" have to be alone. "We" rarely ever are. Humans are social beings, we enjoy and voluntarily seek out companionship and cooperation with others. This is perfectly natural, it doesn't need to be forced. The force is what is unnatural.
Voluntarism is the only social structure designed by all of us, for all of us, and the only one congruent with human nature. It posits the primacy of individual choice as the fundamental foundation for civilized society. Every individual who adopts the voluntarist perspective changes their relationship to society at large. They become. They increase their sphere of freedom. They've transformed their entire worldview--and hence their world--from one of slavery and boundaries to one of freedom and limitless possibility. And if they have a libertarian streak they will share this new world view with their friends and family. And that in turn will transform their world, and worlds beyond, exponentially.
Freedom of choice is the fundamental tenant of Voluntarism. I defy being labeled by outsiders not because their labels are inaccurate but because I choose to identify by my choices. Our identity is not assigned to us by authorities based on circumstances of our birth, but by our actions, by our behavior, by what we choose to do every minute of every hour of every day. This is who we are.
I am an individualist. This is my social contract. It is unilateral. It is not negotiable. Deal with it.
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