Extract from Individualism or society?

Individualism can be understood in two different ways.The first implies an individual's aspiration to self reliance or independence and the need to exist as individual human beings.By contrast,the second is a social theory which prioritises freedom of action by individuals over the authority of an all powerful state.The state's function was to protect a citizen's individual liberties and interfere with any citizen's actions only when those actions violated another individual's right to act freely.
   In practice,in the context of late20th and early 21st century developed societies,the term"individualism" is generally identified with a world view whose followers wage a metaphorical low-level war against what they perceive to be the incessant and incremental growth in the power of the state.True individualists would argue that society's attempts to regulate the individualist's two most closely guarded spheres of personal liberty-economic and civil-will always represent individualism's most keenly fought over battlegrounds.This strongly individualistic view of the role of society is often referred to as "libertarianism".
      An intriguing characteristic of those professing to be libertarians is that they can happliy disagree,equally,vehemently with a government policy on,say,education ,from either a distincyly left or a distinctly right libertarian perspective.Indeed,commentators and opinion formers in the mass media readily admit that one of the most fascinating aspects of these modern individualists of either kind is just how frequently both claim to be the authentic standard bearers of libertarianism.Thus,anarchists arguing for their particular vision of libertarianism would never be seen dead breaking bread with right wing neo-liberal libertarians-or vice versa.
           The most striking evidence of the enduring strength of individualism ,and just how deeply this view of society has permeated all fields and forms of the contemporary arts,being famous for just being famous,has become an article of faith for wannabes everywhere.The seemingly insatiable public appetite for reality TV and tabloid newspapers,in addition to the all-pervasive celebrity photo journalism that fills multitudes of glossy magazines,are living testimony to Andy Warhol's dictum that anyone"can be famous for fifteen minutes" these days.