Opinion

Every great individual stands on the shoulders of others

   Owen Jones
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   Stephen Hawking is the icon of individual achievement in the face of
   almost unimaginable adversity. A diagnosis of motor neurone disease is
   almost always a death sentence, and one more frightening than most. As
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   defied Alabama’s racial segregation laws on public transport in 1955.
   But she was not the first to do so, and neither was it something she
   did on an individual whim.

   Parks was a prominent local activist in the National Association for
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   however talented or renowned – stand on the shoulders of others.

   Despite all the evidence, the prevailing rugged individualism suggests
   those who flourish are the authors of their own success. But the rights
   and freedoms we enjoy today were won by a colossal, multi-generational
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   around us. We are socially constructed beings, forming an immense
   dynamic system that cannot be understood by reducing it to its
   individual parts.

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   None of this is to erode the importance of the individual. The cliche
   that we are all unique is true; we all have individual agency, the
   ability to make choices, even if they are constrained by the
   environment in which we live. Though we are all contributing to a grand
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   environment in which we live. Though we are all contributing to a grand
   collective project, that project would not be possible without the
   unique contributions of millions of individuals. Understanding this
   would better allow each one of us to thrive: to overcome the
   collective, socially constructed injustices that serve as blocks on