Collectivism Cannot Exist Without Authoritarianism

In a conversation with a couple of friends recently, I was asked why I am so adamantly opposed to collectivism.

The reasons are quite simple.

The underlying premise of all collectivism be it socialism, communism, fascism, democratic socialism, national socialism, progressivism, racial supremacy, religious primacy or whatever - relies on the concept of a class of ruling elites telling the poor befuddled lesser masses of humanity what they can do, what they can say, what they can eat, where they can live, what they can believe - etc.   The methods of enforcing said slavery have ranged from physical captivity, to class structures to the soft tyranny of mental enslavement.

Collectivism ALWAYS ends in slavery.  Either a slavery of the body and its efforts, or of the mind and its thoughts.

Collectivism intrinsically demands to some degree the negation of the rights and freedoms of the individual.  And from whatever point the negation starts, it is always a progression to ever greater loss of freedom and rights.  Collectivism never lessens its intrusions on individual liberty and autonomy, but instead always increases these intrusions by taking more and more from the individual.  It never steps back, it never gives back.  Collectivism is a one-way road regardless of where you get on.

Collectivists promise that if you will go along with whatever proposal they are making that everyone will be better off, but collectivists can never give you more than they take from you.  You will always end up worse off anytime you allow a collective to barter with your freedom and liberty.  The saying in gambling is that the house always win.  With collectivism, this finds its fullest expression.   Collectivists leave you with less every time you play their game.  The only way to win the game with collectivism is to not play at all.

People love to divide the political world up between left and right, between Democrat and Republican, between liberal and conservative.  In reality, the division is not to be found there.   The true political divide is found between those who place preeminence with the group above the individual and those who place the rights and freedoms of the individual above the demands of the group.

Now, there are some positive aspects to individuals working together cooperatively on a voluntary basis, but as soon as you add in a little ideology to the mix, even this seemingly benign version of cooperation can become a full-blown version of collectivism.  And that’s the heart of the issue with Collectivism.   Collectivism always, ALWAYS, exists with some type of ideology and ideology exists solely for the negation of individual liberty in exchange for the tyranny of a religious or political society.  Ideologies are nothing more than arguments designed to make you choose to give up your individuality.   Stop being you and be us instead, it cries.

Collectivism is the abdication of personal identity and responsibility.  It replaces your thoughts with the group’s approved thoughts, or in other words, collectivism is the death of individual thought.   It is a graveyard inhabited by living souls content with listening to the sounds of the corpses of bad ideas decaying and rotting far from the sunlight and warmth of life. It is exchanging the most unique thing on the planet – YOU, for a mirror copy of something useless, tepid and in most cases dangerous not only to your life, but to the lives of millions of others.

The truth is that collectivism at its heart relies on the threat of, if not the actual use of, violence.  Do what the group approves or demands or face the consequences.   Loss of your home, your reputation, your job, your wealth and income, your freedoms and liberties.  It is collectivism that has given us genocides and war.  It is collectivism that has given us terrorism.  Collectivism necessarily turns the human being from a potential life giving and lifesaving force into an automaton of death, destruction and despair.

No matter the supposed intentions of its adherents and proponents, collectivism ALWAYS hurts someone and usually a lot of “someones”.

Now understand that a lot of people, and it may be even the vast majority of people, who go along with collectivism do so simply because they don’t want the responsibility of individualism.  People can go to great lengths to avoid responsibility.  They don’t want to bear the burden of becoming a whole person, a person who takes responsibility for themselves.  So, they turn to ideology to justify their surrender to the tyranny of the collective.   It is precisely the well-developed and mature individual who is the antithesis of collectivism.  It is the individual who is the perfect counter to the tyranny of collectivism.

Without the ability to control other people's lives and actions, to police their thoughts and words - collectivism would collapse into nothingness.  It is nothing but slavery and because of this I will ever oppose it.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think is an redeeming merit to collectivism?  Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks!

(originally published 5/17/18)