[aruanan]

The two columns have opposite definitions .i.e., individualism is the opposite of collectivism. Egotism is the opposite of altruism.

This starts out entirely wrong.

Individualism is the opposite of dependency, not collectivism. Contracts between free individuals is the opposite of collectives imposed by the few on the many, just as a state of liberty is the opposite of a state of slavery or serfdom.

[Hank Kerchief]

“Individualism is the opposite of dependency, not collectivism.”

I think your quibble is more semantic than philosophical. Rand regarded “independence” the nature of individualism:

“Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn’t done for others. There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence.” [For the New Intellectual,—The Fountainhead, “The Soul Of An Individualist”]

But collectivism is anything that is put above the individual and to which an individual is subordinated, whether it is a state, a society, a neighborhood, a club or a church. If individualism is not the opposite of collectivism, what is?

Collectivism does not have to be forced on people. Many people willing surrender their individualism and independence for the bowl of mush called security, for example.

Hank

[tacticalogic]

Individualism is the opposite of dependency, not collectivism.

Self-sufficiency is the opposite of dependency. Individualism and collectivism are opposing philosophies. Self-sufficiency/dependency are opposing traits of those opposing philosophies.

IMHO.

[El Gringo]

aruanan: Please see Section V, Chapter 6: The Open Society and its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper.