Self Made Myth

There are ideas that individuals and groups have so embedded in their minds that they never question them.  But often, these conceits do not hold up to close scrutiny.  Here's the start of an article that looks at the myth of the self-made man - a myth that underlies many conservatives, and certainly those Ayn Rand libertarians.  It's useful to review a thoughtful take on it so you're prepared when the opportunity arises to raise someone's consciousness. 

From the Hedgehog Review where you can read the whole article.

Problems and Promises of the Self-Made Myth

Jim Cullen

Reprinted from The Hedgehog Review 15.2 (Summer 2013). This essay may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission. Please contact The Hedgehog Review for further details.

The Hedgehog Review: Summer 2013

(Volume 15 | Issue 2)

• Issue TOC >>

A self-made man means one who has rendered himself accomplished, eminent, rich, or great by his own unaided efforts.

—John Frost, Self-Made Men of America (1848)

These have not been good days for the self-made man. The very phraseology offends: in an age when even corporate titans ritualistically affirm the value of teamwork, “self-made” sounds unseemly. “What’s wrong with the ‘self-made’ theory? Everything,” says Mike Myatt, a prominent CEO consultant, in a 2011 article in Forbes, a publication where one might expect to see such a figure affirmed. “If your pride, ego, arrogance, insecurity, or ignorance keeps you from recognizing the contributions of others, then it’s time for a wake-up call,” he admonishes.1 In the 2012 book The Self-Made Myth, authors Brian Miller and Mike Lapham define the phrase as “the false assertion that individual and business success are entirely the result of the hard work, creativity, and sacrifice of the individual with little outside assistance.”2
Such objections do not even begin to broach the difficulties of a phrase like “self-made man” in a postfeminist era, when any generic citation of “man” is at best a faux pas. Given the institutional, much less biological, realities that govern our lives, the very idea of the self-made man sounds like a contradiction in terms. No man is “unaided” because every man is some mother’s son.

Here's the whole article.