Unsurprisingly, they are all fierce individualists with mighty work ethics, strong opinions, and stunning successes.

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Until that changes, Matsushita's new individualists are likely to retain a decidedly collectivist bent.

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He talked about what rugged, self-reliant individualists Americans were, and then presaged disaster if any support programs were cut.

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He is a Catholic who sees society not as an agglomeration of random Randian individualists but as part of a community, part of a whole.

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After all, this is the land of pick-up trucks and rugged individualists unlikely to put their freedom of mobility at the whim of new-fangled battery power.

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Or perhaps (Mr Miliband hopes) parenthood induces empathy and trust, as even flinty individualists find themselves grateful to nannies, doctors or the BBC, with its wholesome children's programmes.

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Though the proportion of city-dwellers has soared, they are different from the atomised individualists of Europe or North America: the extended family and traditional social networks have survived even in teeming Tehran.

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However, the first year of office has seen the Lib Dems mature far faster than expected, transforming themselves from a group of individualists tending towards uncontrollable anarchy to a recognisably coherent and even purposeful parliamentary group.

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Yes, we are rugged individualists.

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