ABSTRACT
In so far as the losers have subscribed to the individualistic rules of the game, they have agreed to abide by the consequences of those rules, which include the consequence that there will be winners and losers, whose success or failure will be culturally ruled as their own doing. If the appropriate metaphor for individualism is an eco-system, an appropriate one for an important part of humanism might be an insurance pool. Behaving as humanistic environments to others always involves a never-easy steering between two traps. The traps are especially dangerous in the context of powerless people; that is, people who are losers in the distribution of empowerments; but it is well to understand the more general problem first. The deep reason for the non sequitur probably lies in a widespread confusion about the relations among the concepts, determinism, free will, and responsibility - another instance of the mischief done by inadequate separation of thought from perception.
