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Western countries have long been attached to the notion that independence of thought, belief and action are a desirable end. It is why, with only rare and unfortunate exceptions, western laws and government policies are designed to protect the individual as an individual.

The Reformation and the Enlightenment both furthered the notion that people should be looked at first as individuals, and only second, if at all, as members of some collective. John Stuart Mill’s 1859 classic, On Liberty, cemented the argument in the western mind.

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The benefits have been legion. One example: The suffragette movement in the early 20th century was animated by the conviction that women should be treated as individuals and not as appendages of nearby males.

The presumption that individuals matter, and ought to be protected and promoted as such, is thus a necessary, core ingredient to actualized freedom in western societies.