Justice Anthony Kennedy didn\u2019t invent the shift from community to autonomy, but in 1992 he articulated it more crisply than anyone else: \u201cAt the heart of liberty is the right to define one\u2019s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this sentence, which became famous as the \u201cmystery of life\u201d passage, there is no sense that individuals are embedded in a social order. There is no acknowledgment of the parts of ourselves that we don\u2019t choose but inherit \u2014 family, race, social roles, historical legacies of oppression, our bodies, the habits that are handed down to us by our common culture.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no we. We are all monads who walk around with our own individual opinions about existence, meaning and the universe. Each person is a self-created choosing individual, pursuing individual desires. There is no sense that we are part of a common flow connecting the past, present and future; instead, each of us creates our own worldview anew.<\/p>\n