If self-sacrifice, conformity, and routinization are antithetical to individualism, then an individualist life ought to embody egoism, independence -- and spontaneity.

    The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a spontaneous act as one "controlled and directed internally." Etymologically, spontaneous comes from the Latin term sponte, meaning "of one’s own accord” or "arising from one’s own free will." Spontaneity, therefore, is not the product of environmental circumstances or social pressures; it is self-initiated.

    Today the concept of spontaneity may bring to mind the behavior of those who impulsively follow random urges and emotions. If such creatures can be regarded as "spontaneous," then they serve as a clear illustration that spontaneity should not be regarded as an end in itself.

    But that does not mean that spontaneity cannot occupy a role in lives of rational people. Spontaneity generates variety and novelty in life. It can make the otherwise mundane chores of life more interesting, thereby helping to keep the mind actively engaged with reality.

    Reason is not merely the absence of unreason. It is an active cognitive process. Spontaneous expressions of independent thought affirm our individuality and the efficacy of our rational faculties.

    Those who, in the name of being "rational," categorically refuse to pursue the unplanned or the unconventional or the unknown, ought to be reminded that rationality is but the means of achieving life’s ultimate end: happiness.

    Unfortunately, some ostensibly "rational" people have fooled themselves into believing that leading a rational life means being ritualistic in their application of reason. Such individuals may commit themselves to absorbing an immense amount of knowledge. But being intellectual is not the same thing as being happy. Sadly, their dutiful study of philosophy (or other subjects) may be nothing more than an escape from the responsibility of living here on Earth.

    There are many other "escapes," of course. In order to avoid the responsibility of making conscious choices about what to do with their life, some people religiously follow a set of day-to-day routines. Their routines and habits may fill up their time, but they ultimately lead to emptiness in life.

    Some routines can serve a useful purpose, enabling us to automatize tasks that would otherwise require deliberate planning. For instance, when we drive to a place we’ve visited dozens of times, we don’t have to get out a map and chart our course. We make the appropriate turns en route to our destination seemingly automatically, because we have absorbed thoroughly the knowledge needed to make the trip.

    But what if every aspect of life was automatized? What if we always got up at the same time in the morning, always reported to the same workplace, always watched the same television shows when we got home in the evening, always ate the same foods, always associated with the same people, and always pursued the same hobbies? Then life would amount to little more than the perpetual pursuit of predictable tedium.

    Unfortunately, the lives of all too many people are remarkably lifeless. When these adult animated corpses were young children (before being subjected to schooling), they were probably playful, spontaneous, and happy. They felt free then.

    But the school system pressured them to surrender their spontaneity, and with it, their individuality. School demands from students, above all, obedience. Students are not treated as individuals, but as parts of the "student body." They are forced to walk in single-file lines. They may not voice objections to any of the school’s dictates. Merely asking too many "why" questions in class could provoke the teacher’s wrath.

    In addition to submission to authority, schools, not coincidentally, encourage social conformity. Just as disobedient students face disciplinary action to get "straightened out," non-conforming students face rejection and harassment from their peers for not "fitting in."

    Thus, students learn to base their behaviors on the opinions of others. Young people induce that just being themselves won’t lead to academic or social success. So they put on a socially acceptable mask. Their social existence becomes their identity.

    Grade-school kids, and especially teenagers, might appear at first glance to exhibit plenty of spontaneous behaviors, but most of the supposed evidence (their music, clothing, language, etc.) points not toward choices they have made independently from within, but toward conformity to their peer group. It can be observed that almost all students assume the values of the particular clique with which they most identify -- whether it's the "jocks" or the "preps" or the "punks" or whatever.

    The typical routine following high school is either to obtain employment working five days per week under a rigid nine-to-five schedule, or to attend college and obtain a slightly higher paying job working five days per week under a rigid eight-to-five schedule.

    Workers in the United States are forced to fork over 12.4 percent of their wages (including mandatory employer contributions) for the government's Social Security (or, as some have more accurately dubbed it, “Socialist Insecurity”) retirement plan. At 65, workers can retire and collect full benefits (which currently amount, on average, to a paltry two-percent return on their forced contributions).

    A 25 year-old might prefer in the short-term to save up for a house instead of for retirement; he or may wish to begin building a retirement fund at age 40, when earning power tends to be greater; or, the individual might want to retire at age 50 and then resume a full-time career five years later, on through age 80 (most people are capable of working well past age 65). But these unconventional options don’t square with government bureaucrats.

    In reality, there’s little room for spontaneity in the typical life-cycle, the typical work week, or the typical day. Americans, and virtually all citizens of the "free world," are foisted into a social system that attempts to routinize, normalize, and sterilize human life.

    Life should amount to more than a passive repetition of recurring routines. Life should be a process of progressing, not running in place. Each week and month should build upon the previous one. For those who live this way, life truly does get better with age.

    For those who stagnate, growing old is dreadful. Their days are indistinct and unremarkable, and in the end they add up to nothing. The days and weeks and months will seem to have blended into a meaningless gray whole they refer to cynically as "life."

    Fortunately, it is possible to break free from the patterns of ritualistic behavior fostered by schools, government, and the culture of conformity. Spontaneity can be a catalyst in the process of self-liberation.

    Periodically breaking some of life's routines (even those that seem to be harmless) can increase one’s sense of personal freedom and efficacy. An individual who sought to bring about more spontaneity in his life might decide, on occasion, to:

• Take an unfamiliar route to a familiar destination;
  
• Stay up all night and go to bed as the sun rises;
  
• Go out jogging during a heavy downpour;
  
• Dress in an unusual outfit;
  
• Read a book on an unfamiliar topic;
  
• Spend a day in complete solitude;
  
• Create and celebrate a new holiday;
  
• Paint a colorful mural directly on a plain white bedroom wall;
  
• Try an exotic type of cuisine for dinner instead of a hamburger;
  
• Offend someone by being bluntly honest instead of fashionably polite;
  
• Break a law (and there are plenty that deserve to be broken).