Collectivism
Collectivism is an outlook stressing the priority of group goals over individual goals and the importance of cohesion within social groups. Collectivism is a basic cultural element that exists as the opposite of individualism, which is any philosophic, political, religious, economic, or social outlook which emphasizes the interdependence of every human being. Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or nation. It is used and has been used as an element in many different and diverse types of government and political, economic and educational philosophies throughout history, ranging from communalism, democracy, monarchy, and socialism to totalitarian nationalism and exists in some organized religions. Collectivism is sometimes confused with socialism, but while socialism, as a political and economic theory, draws more from collectivism than it does from individualism, it is directly concerned with perceived economic justice or injustice such as the elimination of private property. Collectivism regards group action as more important than individual action somewhat independently of cultural context, and does not propose a system of government and civil life, as socialism does and has been used in such ideologically opposite systems as monarchy. Most societies contain elements of both collectivism and individualism.
Quotes [edit]
- Alphabetized by author
- It cannot be said too often — at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough — that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of.
- George Orwell, in a review of The Road to Serfdom (1944)
- The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.
- Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus (1991)
- Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist.
- Totalitarianism is collectivism. Collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group — whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called "the common good." Throughout history, no tyrant ever rose to power except on the claim of representing "the common good." Napoleon "served the common good" of France. Hitler is "serving the common good" of Germany. Horrors which no man would dare consider for his own selfish sake are perpetrated with a clear conscience by "altruists" who justify themselves by — the common good.
- Ayn Rand, in "The Only Path to Tommorow" in Readers Digest (January 1944), pp. 88-90
- Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage — the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry.
- Ayn Rand, in "Racism" in The Obectivist (1962), also in The Ayn Rand Lexicon : Objectivism from A to Z (1988)
- The hard evidence of totalitarian rule has caused in mankind an uprising of the intellect and will. Whether it is the growth of the new schools of economics in America or England or the appearance of the so-called new philosophers in France, there is one unifying thread running through the intellectual work of these groups — rejection of the arbitrary power of the state, the refusal to subordinate the rights of the individual to the superstate, the realization that collectivism stifles all the best human impulses.
