Individualism or Collectivism?
by Gary Stamper – Collapsing into Consciousness
There’s an interesting article called Are Individuals The Property Of The Collective? written by Brandon Smith on his website Alt-Market.com. I’ve not seen Alt-Market.com before and had I not seen his article reposted on SHTFplan.com, I might not have seen it at all. Brandon says the “website exists to facilitate networking, local community action, and the exchange of knowledge and ideas. We promote decentralization, localism, and the de-globalization of human economic systems. We aim to work with and support local economies, markets, barter networks, and farmers cooperatives; and to promote alternative currencies and monetary systems.”
I very much like and am united with Brandon’s stated goal of his website, and after reviewing the website, know that I’ll return often and also provide a link to his site on the CIC links page.
Brandon begins his very well articulated article with this paragraph:
Mankind has faced a bewildering multitude of self-made catastrophes and self-made terrors over the past few millennium, most of which stem from a single solitary conflict between two opposing social qualities: individualism vs. collectivism. These two forces of organizational mechanics have gone through evolution after evolution over the years, and I believe the long battle is nearing an apex moment; a moment in which one ideology or the other will become dominant around the world for well beyond the foreseeable future.
Brandon goes on to say:
Collectivism is, in fact, a bastardization of a more useful human condition; namely community. Inherent in all people is the need for meaningful connection with others, and thus, the world around them, without being forced to sacrifice their own identities and their own souls in the process. The best representation of this model is the idea of “voluntary community”, where individuals seek out each other and facilitate their own connections. However, if they can’t find meaningful connection, many people will settle for whatever they can get.
Everything that Brandon spells out in the article is true and it is argued excellently and eloquently, and he is correct…as far as he goes.
In the second quote above, Brandon points out that, “Collectivism is….in fact, a bastardization of a more useful human condition; namely community.” Brandon also says that the greater good of collectivism is always subjective, but so is individualism. The greater good of the collective is determined by the collective and the greater good of the individual is determined by each individual. In his article, Brandon tells us that global problems will not be solved by collectivism, and he is absolutely correct, but then ends his article by stating, “All that matters is the life of the individual. Each individual. For when all men rediscover their individualism, only then will we be able to move forward as a whole.”
Collectivism, as a system has many faults, but individualism, which isn’t even a system, but rather the lack of a system, also has many faults. Each, by themselves are partial. The newcollectivism, championed by the political left, has emerged as a response to the unbridled individualism of the political right.
Who can deny that the Ayn Rand individualism – the every man for himself mentality – of the past 40 years has not wreaked havoc on the global financial system. In the years since we first heard the poster boy for this type of individualism – Gordon Gekko – tell us that “greed is good, ” we’ve experienced a lot that reminds us just how wrongheaded that assertion is.
Yet those who live by Gekko’s word did not understand the irony and sarcasm contained within the words “greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit,” but rather, emboldened and given permission in their minds to run a full course of pathological individualism that brought the whole system down in ’08 and is doing it once more on an even larger scale with far more serious consequences. We’re reminded of coach Tom Landry’s words: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”
“True individualism is not common and in our society is typically marked as being a sociopath. This is an individual for whom no social connections matter, and there is little ability to empathize with fellow humans.” – Gerhard Adam
Neither, by themselves, are sufficient.
So if each is partial, and neither sufficient, where do we go from here? We must move past the partial views of the left and the right.
The answer may lie in something called “individual collectivism.”
Individual collectivism understands that individuals need to be recognized and acknowledged within the larger social group. In our culture, it is a rare person who is able – or even wants – to act outside some sort of collective, whether its a policeman or fireman, an employee or a business owner, a sports or corporate team, a local or national culture, a religion or spiritual calling, or a political leaning, or a politician. Even as individuals, we seek like-minded people to associate with, to support and be supported, to share common goals. It is our nature.
And while we claim to abhor “collectives,” we automatically join them, leaving the impression that it’s not really about collectives at all, but rather, the freedom to choose which collective we participate in rather than our objections about collectivism. This doesn’t deny our personal identities or rob us of the choices we make regarding our participation in a collective.
It is, in fact, our ability to join collectives in the form of societies that has allowed us to make the many cultural shifts that have brought us to the place where we’re now able to not only discuss concepts like Individual Collectivism, where the individual and the collective are honored for the healthy aspects of each, but enable them to work for the betterment of both.
We evolved in collectives. There will be no collective without individuals and there will be no individuals without a collective. For better or for worse, it is the individual within the collective that is responsible for where we are today.
We need each other now more than ever.
