From “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action” by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
Self-sufficiency hides behind the masks of competence and achievement. Your ability to do things proficiently and well protects you from dependence on others, which may pose some deep and unacknowledged threats. Grasping the neurotic hold of self-sufficiency on your soul, however, is hindered by the culture’s affirmation of these qualities.
Our society extols self-sufficiency. Dependence on others, especially among men, smacks of weakness. Injunctions urge us to “pull ourselves up by our own bookstrapes.” Conservative politicians decry those who become reliant on governmental assistance for their welfare, warning that this destroys their initiative and independent agency.
From its founding, American society has placed the highest value on the individual as the focus for identity. Individual rights are enshrined in our Constitution and embedded in shared assumptions about the purpose and fulfillment of life. It’s our unquestioned starting point. All this, of course, reflects the heritage of liberal Western democracies. And the primacy of individual self-fulfillment has infected many strands of modern Western Christianity.