It’s something I put in the category of “useful myth”. Striving for self-sufficiency and individualism often results in realizing that one is more resourceful and capable of achieving more than one might have given oneself (or been given by others) credit for. It helps one feel like one can take control of one’s life instead of being at the mercy of others. And being able to take care of oneself allows one to have more to offer others, to give more than receive. I think of it on the same terms as one’s emotional life- insecure people tend to act self-centeredly, and as one works on becoming more secure and self-confident, one gradually realizes that it’s not all about you, and it’s easier to give freely. Both emotionally and materially, if you are confident that you can take care of yourself, you will have the confidence to go out on a limb to help others. And I’m not sure the charge of denial of collective action sticks; the issue isn’t collective action, it’s with the arena in which collective action takes place. Even die hard libertarians value the importance of community, trade, comparative advantage- the difference is that it is preferred in the voluntary realm rather than government.
Yes, it can be oversold, but like with the Protestant Work Ethic or the myth of meritocracy (all things that occasionally get bashed around here), we shouldn’t let the fact that people sometimes misapply it cause us to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Sometimes the narrative might be a myth, but sometimes it’s a myth worth trying to live up to.
One of the things that I liked about Walden Pond was the notion of routing around; he explicitly rejected going into debt for a house, he thought, maybe I can find a way around that - which resonates with issues today involving home ownership, higher education, and starting a business. As other people have said here, question the “normal” path of living- you might find that for you, as an individual, there is a different way.
My other comment about charges of shallow environmentalism is that in the context of the time, it was kind of a big shift in thinking. The idea of preserving nature and appreciating it hadn’t really been a thing for very long before that. Despite his imperfections, we needed people like him inspiring others to reach modern environmental consciousness.
