Can individualism be seen as a positive trait?

More often that not, we will have friends that possess the trait ' individualism '. For friends that possesses this trait often seek individual thoughts or actions to view an issue, they are not concerned if their views have gone against the majority. This could make things difficult for people.

So can individualism be really seen as a positive trait?

I would use an example, a 1957 film titled " 12 Angry Men " to show whether individualistic can be seen as a positive trait.

The film is about 12 men on a jury judging a young man accused of murdering his father. At the start, 11 out of 12 members have came to a unanimous decision - the boy is guilty. However, the last member of the jury refused to believe that the boy was guilty. And the problem was that there had to be consensus among the 12 members of the jury, if not all members were not allowed to leave the court room.

This situation lasted in the court for quite a while and has caused frustrations and fatigue to all the members. Despite the anger expressed by the other 11 members against the only 1 member, the only member of the jury still believed strongly that the boy was not guilty. With this, the 12 members were forced to look back into the case and this is followed by a series of vehement displays which finally leads to a final consensus - the boy was proved  to be not GUILTY.

Had only the last member of the jury did not possess individualism, holding strong beliefs and firm stands, the boy would have been sentenced guilty.