| Chapter Intro: | Introduction |
|
|
Existential mistrust destroys a person's ability to communicate genuinely with others. Then, through the associated symptom of routine cynicism that causes one to constantly look for hidden meanings, motives, and agendas in communication, existential mistrust is deepened to the point where faith in any aspect of everyday life has been destroyed (Arnett & Arneson, 1999). The pervasiveness of unreflective cynicism and existential mistrust are two conditions that reflect a society imbued within a hermeneutic of suspicion akin to Friedrich Nietzsche's (1900, 1887/1994) prophetic perspectives. With no social, traditional standard available to guide speech, action, and judgment, individualism and subjectivism appear as the only available recourses to guide one's communicative practices.
Individualism: The Guide to Particular Communicative Practices
Within the depths of the postmodern condition, the self has chosen to reject the overarching, guiding metanarratives that previously informed how one ought to live in the world. The person has become skeptical about the power and authority of prevailing ideology (Sim, 1998). The person's skepticism has led to routine cynicism, an unceasing attitude of negativity, and ultimately to a pervasive existential mistrust that destroys the ability to enter into genuine dialogue with the other. Because of both the rejection of metanarrative standards and one's distrust of her fellow human beings, the only way to turn for guidance is inward, a turn de Tocqueville warned of during his visit to America in the 1830s.
Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in 1831 to witness for himself the birth of a new nation and see the development of its democracy. While de Tocqueville discussed a vast variety of topics that affect and/or contribute to democracy, he pointed out one in particular that possessed the potential to undermine the very essence of democracy, individualism. According to de Tocqueville (2001), individualism is of democratic