We Are “Rugged Individualists” Here

In his inauguration speech for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani said, “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

To be an heroic gent, a man must struggle, overcome obstacles, get dirt under his nails, shrug off all those who say he can’t achieve his goals, grow calluses on his hands but not his heart, be strong enough to help those in need but still resolute enough not to let himself play the part of Boxer in Animal Farm for those who would enslave him, and so, in sum, become a rugged individual.

Such a man knows that, if the bath of collectivism is warm, it is warmed by the blood of others. Of this, a heroic gent wants no part.

If Mamdani thinks he can “replace” the manly can-do American spirit with a group identity and thereby enslave free men to his will, he will soon find that there are still enough American men (including a lot of New Yorkers) who are made of much harder things than his warm bath can soften.