More on Individualism vs Collectivism - Redux!
A relevant [and slightly edited] re-post from last October:
I was thinking this morning about people who are far too accepting of their loss of freedoms/rights… but my mind automatically swung to the belief that as Americans, who we fundamentally ARE, surely the majority of us cannot -will not- allow the very foundation, and fundamental beliefs, of our country to be rewritten.
We are a relatively young country and unique in that we were founded on and for the establishment and preservation of democratic rights; that, where there would be government, citizens would play a very strong role in exactly *what* that government was. Now many seem to have forgotten that and want to hand those rights off to the government as if any group of people, with their own agendas, know better that any citizen what is best for us.
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
In a perfect world we would be able to rise up and sweep clean, not the government, but the people that have tried to harness it for their own ends.
Don’t get me wrong… I abhor the rights being covertly and overtly stripped from Americans; I abhor the way the reins have been taken from ‘we the people’ and are now firmly held by elected officials of both parties. And I do not believe it is something that has been limited to the last administration but rather something that goes back a lot further.
Having said that I have to acknowledge that, at this time, we have few choices. With all my heart, and love for this country, I do not believe becoming a collectivist society is the answer. It may sound all ‘new world’ and kumbaya to imagine a brighter world where we can all hold hands and help one another by sacrificing. But we would simply be sacrificing MORE rights and freedoms and giving more power to a government that cares for nothing more than gaining more power and silencing dissent. That is exactly what that kind of society would mean.
I disagree with many conservatives on some issues that are important to me… but in looking at the bigger picture of what America fundamentally IS I have come to think that moderate conservatism as the only currently available genuine solution -because it falls more in line with what is intrinsically and historically American… less government, reduced spending, controlled taxation- and I have to be honest enough to admit that while it may not be *the* solution it is at least closer to the center… closer to what I think is truly ‘in defense’ of America.
We can look at history, recent and ancient, at societies that have failed… and collectivist societies fail every time and fail dramatically. As I said, America was and is a Republic… and an experiment in Democracy. To end that in some rash hope for radical change towards collectivism is, in my opinion, a big mistake.
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