Individual Advancement vs Democracy

"God helps them that help themselves" (Poor Richards Almanack, 722), a phrase commonly quoted from "Poor Richard's Almanacks", illustrates the types of selfishness often seen during Benjamin Franklin's time. Or does it? Is wanting and striving for a better self so bad? Would the reader of such phrase think to himself "Wow, the author is really self-absorbed" or "The author must be a hard worker who values self improvement"? Either way, the real question is why …

…a man with his own thoughts and ideas but an number among many with the same. Franklin, Hawthorne, and Emerson all believed their idea was the right one, but the fact is neither were right. The Individualism and/vs. Community can best be summed up by Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" where he said, "Individualism is a novel expression, to which a novel idea has given birth" (Individualism and/vs. Community, 1308). Bibliography none needed