Privatized Life

The privatization of social security reflects a more pervasive ideology of individualism. This ideology deems all forms of collective action anathema to the fundamental privacy of the individual. Insofar as this "ownership society" ideology is accompanied by aspirations of theocracy (as is explicitly stated in the Texas Republican Party Platform--"Our Party pledges to ... dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State"), it reflects not only the will to privatize social policy but also religion. Whereas religion was once the source of community, it now ironically becomes the disintegration of community in atomized individuals with private faith. Go in peace, and serve the Lord without serving the world in any coordinated way.