The fundamental political conflict in America today is, as it has been for a century, individualism vs. collectivism. Does the individual’s life belong to him—or does it belong to the group, the community, society, or the state? if it belongs to the state then the individual has no right to own guns nor even property or a house.
there are 2 groups of people conservative and liberals. democrats and republicans. but really it’s a battle between individualism vs collectivism. I’m telling you all every single democrat is a collectivist and they are driving us to a state where an individual will not even be allowed to own a house nor property much less guns. but it’s the same principle : private ownership.
democrats/liberals/progressives or whatever they call themselves are just collectivists which = also marxists/sociaslists/communists
Individualism is the idea that the individual’s life belongs to him and that he has an inalienable right to live it as he sees fit, to act on his own judgment, to keep and use the product of his effort, and to pursue the values of his choosing. It’s the idea that the individual is sovereign, an end in himself, and the fundamental unit of moral concern. This is the ideal that the American Founders set forth and sought to establish when they drafted the Declaration and the Constitution and created a country in which the individual’s rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness were to be recognized and protected.
Collectivism is the idea that the individual’s life belongs not to him but to the group or society of which he is merely a part, that he has no rights, and that he must sacrifice his values and goals for the group’s “greater good.” According to collectivism, the group or society is the basic unit of moral concern, and the individual is of value only insofar as he serves the group. As one advocate of this idea puts it: “Man has no rights except those which society permits him to enjoy. From the day of his birth until the day of his death society allows him to enjoy certain so-called rights and deprives him of others; not . . . because society desires especially to favor or oppress the individual, but because its own preservation, welfare, and happiness are the prime considerations.”1
Individualism or collectivism—which of these ideas is correct? Which has the facts on its side?
Individualism does, and we can see this at every level of philosophic inquiry: from metaphysics, the branch of philosophy concerned with the fundamental nature of reality; to epistemology, the branch concerned with the nature and means of knowledge; to ethics, the branch concerned with the nature of value and proper human action; to politics, the branch concerned with a proper social system.
http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2012-spring/individualism-collectivism.asp
wish there was a ‘like’ button. Great comment
I completely agree with everything I read there. I would add that I would be very concerned about that if I thought our country would survive to see the collectivists win. Sadly, I think worrying about that is like worrying about making your next house payment after just losing your job as a runaway tractor trailer is headed straight for your car.
it’s like 1942 Germans worrying about what draconian laws Hitler is going to introduce in 1947.
I never found a democrat/liberal/socialist who gave up their own property.
I know that millions of citizens in communist countries, communist “sheeple”, were forced to give up their property.
Of course, global elite financiers financed the “state” projects, building, etc.
So what we really had was an entire nation of worker slaves working for a few monopolists. Who never gave up their private property. Even as as they lived in US/UK/Europe and were wealthy avowed “socialists”.