Collectivism vs Individualsim

Submitted by Ralph C Whaley MD (United States), Jan 24, 2008 at 22:58

The problem of collectivism, whether one's identity is determined by membership in the family, the tribe, the race or any collective, is that collectivism is anti-human life. History demonstrates that collectivism of whatever stripe leads to denigration of the individual and the demand that the group may dispose of anyone for the alledged good of the group determined by the emotions of a self proclaimed wise man or one selected by group consensus.

The opposite is individualism or egoism which recognizes the individual human as the owner of his life and sovereign in all matters of his life leaving every individual free to do the same.

The USA came closest to establishing this principle by founding America on Individual Rights. History required the wisdom of Ayn Rand to discover that it is only the initiation of physical force by one or more other individuals against another that can violate a human's rights and that a government (the sole authorized agent for the use of force in a given geographical area) must use that force only in retaliation against those who initiate force against others. No nation on earth has yet established these principles in law. America came closest but sadly is going down hill into the collectivist morass.

The Arab and non-Arab muslim nations of the Mid East, Africa and Asia are drowning in collectivism. They will languish in strife and misery and lash out until they learn the evil of colectivism and the moral glory of egoism and Individual Rights. Only then can they establish governments that make life as humans possible.

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