Individualism

by Robert Villegas

  In the chapter, “Coming to Grips with Racism”, I state that collectivism “was the scourge of the 20th Century and would devastate the 21st if not defeated as a philosophical and political ideal.” This is quite a charge against an institution that is seen as benevolent and proper for man. In this chapter, I intend to investigate the very real differences between collectivism and Individualism in order to show that collectivism is indeed a scourge and that Individualism is the only hope.

  Most people today have never been explicitly confronted with the idea of collectivism. Most do not know that it is a political ideal used by some intellectuals to identify a movement whose goal is to mold men into docile slaves. Additionally, the idea that Individualism is a viable alternative to collectivism has seldom been discussed though it is crucial for the survival of our way of life. Indeed, most people have simply absorbed collectivism from their parents and teachers without even hearing the word "collectivism." Most believe that belonging to a group, participating in group activities and fostering group goals are good. Most, therefore, see group membership as a civilizing influence in man's history. Unwittingly, most of us are collectivists.

  Given the dominance of collectivism in our culture, does the absence of debate about its nature indicate a conspiracy of some sort? Are our cultural leaders attempting to pull a fast one, so to speak, on each generation, merely taking collectivism for granted without even offering a viable option? Is it possible that we have been duped about this important debate for centuries and that each of us has been thrust, without choice, into a collectivist universe? It would seem so.

  Indeed, the advocates of collectivism have never offered a viable justification for their views; we are seldom allowed to consider any alternatives to collectivism through an open dispassionate debate. Our educational system merely takes it for granted that it is good to find a group, that group loyalty is good, that groups of people getting together to help others is good, that joining a collective is a sure way to happiness. Indeed, the collectivists rule the day because they control the culture. Even in a society where freedom of speech is held in high regard, there are few that are openly advocating an alternative to collectivism.

  Rather, men are told that we must work together to solve social problems, that no man is an island, that men should help each other and that it is better to give than to receive. That collectivism has devastated more lives than egotistical capitalists has been ignored. That entrepreneurial capitalism has done more good worldwide than collectivist governmental bureaucracies is never acknowledged. That collectivism is responsible for most of the evil that humanity has brought into this world is a scandalous omission. Indeed, in a society of free speech and free inquiry, we have been forced by the authority of our educators to avoid investigation of the very real impact that collectivism has had on societies. We have been given, from our first days on earth, nothing less than glowing propaganda about the value of collective goals while we are enslaved for such goals that deliver none of the promised benefits.

  There are three possible ways a person can approach life: 1. Fear and capitulation to collectivism, 2. Fear and rebellion against the collective moral imperatives ("If this be evil, then make the most of it"), 3. Motivation by reason (Individualism).

  The last only leads to happiness. The others lead to neurosis and are the cause of most psychological problems.

  Man is a creature who evolved from an earlier animal that did not have the ability to use reason. Before man was man, he survived like other animals using automatic survival methods, such as pleasure/pain and fight/flight. These are what I call primitive survival devices.

  Yet, there are other devices designed to prepare the child for adulthood--I call them primitive teaching. One form of primitive teaching is done by the adult who serves as an example for the growing child. The adult, in effect, plays with the child, simulating the hunt, with the child the hunted and the adult the hunter. There is a built-in mechanism in the child to emulate or imitate the adult. This is called “acting-out.” The child later does toward other creatures what is done toward him. This provides, in the wild, the ability to hunt and survive.

  Another form of primitive teaching is accomplished when the child observes the adult perform the actions that are required for survival. The child absorbs or incorporates the adult's behavior and begins to "practice" the survival method in preparation for adulthood.

  These primitive teaching devices can be observed in many animal species, especially mammals. What is critical for our purposes is to recognize that these mechanisms are still within man. They are still functioning. Treat a child in a certain way and he will treat others in the same way. Act in a certain way and the child will imitate those actions.

  Why do I call these primitive devices? They are primitive because they evolved at a time when man's mind was not capable of abstract thinking; was not capable of rationally deciding what to do. They worked perfectly well for the survival of the species, but like all primitive methods they were not perfect. Sometimes the opposite of survival took place as happens today when an animal drinks poisoned water or runs out in front of an automobile thinking the car is a large creature invading territory.

  Man, unlike all other creatures, developed reason, and it was reason that made "acting-out" behaviors obsolete. Reason was able to distinguish truths and facts to help him understand the rules of nature. Reason enabled man to change habits by formulating and acting upon new knowledge. And it was the process of abstracting concepts such as quality and quantity that helped create knowledge. Man also recorded facts and ideas to pass to future generations. Reason helped man develop technology, hence the evolution into "Technological Man." Reason was a better way.

  Why is this important for our understanding of the treatment of individuals? Reason is an attribute of the individual. It is a chosen activity that must be engaged by each child. And more importantly, we now have the requirement as adults, not to teach children to merely imitate and "act-out," but to teach them how to think. And it is this responsibility that, above all, is the one responsibility collectivists have encouraged us to ignore.

  If you analyze primitive societies, you will notice that they characteristically handle their children by teaching them to "act-out" and imitate. This is what makes them primitive. This is why their technology is primitive. This is why they are steeped in mysticism and mythology that carry from generation to generation unchanged. The primitive, ritualistic society is the closest that man can come to his animal nature.

  Through modern philosophy, in spite of our ability to use reason, our culture has brought into today’s society all the premises of the ritualistic mentality: collectivism, mysticism, altruism, fear, acting-out and imitation. Give a modern child these concepts and you destroy his ability to reason, his ability to be man. The more seriously he takes you the more animal-like he becomes. Most psychological problems today are an outgrowth of the stunting of the ability to reason inflicted on the Individual by poor parenting, bad school teachers, dogmatic churches, overbearing authority figures and cruel peers – all given power by collectivism.

  Look at the children that some parents create, the gangsters, the mindless thugs, the drooling illiterates that populate our popular culture and you can see the victory of collectivism. This is the visible product of collectivism precisely because collectivism cannot hold reason as a value. Reason contradicts faith and it is faith that collectivism fosters. A man of faith is an unquestioning man that can be controlled and who will do what he is taught to do—he is a man who will act out the ritual wars of the collectivist culture. Faith, to the collectivist propagandist is superior to reason in spite of the fact that none has been able to show how a man operating from faith and fear is superior.

  The visible product of collectivist primitivism is everywhere around us, and has not, until now, been identified because, much like primitive tribes, we find ourselves engaged in "we" thinking and don't realize that what we take for granted as
necessary for survival is precisely what is making our survival difficult. Did we realize that this orgy of criminality and commonality in our neighborhoods was nothing more than our children acting-out what they saw us do or say? Did we realize that their gangsterism was the product of one of our most basic cultural premises: collectivism? We look at today's social problems and tell ourselves we need more collectivism. When we ask ourselves, what has gone wrong in our society, have we looked at what we consider our highest value, our most dominant institution: collectivism? We tell ourselves that to deal with crime we need more collectivism-that the misguided youth has just chosen the wrong group. Instead of choosing his street gang, we exhort him to choose his church, or his family, or his tribe as his gang. We have always sought to find the negative premises that could create the mindless subculture that is responsible for this orgy of decline--and we cannot seem to understand the cause. The cause is our everyday thoughts and institutions as they are found in our philosophy books and comic books, in our movies and DVDs, in our prayer books and popular novels. These children are only imitating what they see. As we grope in confusion and helplessness to stop the trend toward social decline, we tell ourselves that we need more of the poison that is causing the decline. That poison is collectivism.

  Ritualism

  Collectivism is not a benevolent ideal. Hatred and strife are all that it achieves. The best way to understand it is to look at its most primitive form: ritualism. Ritualism is the social system for bands of people, closely related, who live in small geographical areas.

  As I discussed in my book, The History of Altruism, many modern concepts such as self-sacrifice/altruism are an outgrowth of their primitive forms in Paleolithic times. Altruism came out of ritual human sacrifice and developed into its modern form through a “secularizing” process that converted the collective (tribe) into the modern state under the false premise that the will of the people is equivalent to the truth of god. Similarly, collectivism (which is necessary for altruism) developed into the concept of the group, collective or nation.

  By understanding ritualism as one of the most fundamental and telling forms of collectivism, we can understand the sources of the negative premises that comprise modern collectivism. The key tenets of Ritualism are 1. Rule by one man, 2. Loyalty to the tribe, 3. Commonly held beliefs or myths, and 4. Ritual practice.

  Rule by one man

  In nature, animals that are incapable of surviving alone congregate into herds and packs. These forms of social organization help in survival against predators and competitors. It is likely, that man evolved from a creature that ran in packs. Much like the wolf or lion, he hunted and lived in a pack because he could count on the cooperation of fellow pack members. Such cooperation helped him be a more effective hunter – he could protect himself and his family against other predators and he could survive. The pack, and the form of organization it represented, was a valid form of survival for primitive man because it leveraged the idea of strength in numbers.

  A primitive tribe is essentially alone in the wilderness walking a fine line between survival and destruction. In many ways, the tribe is one of the most dangerous forms of social organization because its struggle for survival is made more difficult by its primitive forms of thought – concrete-bound thinking patterns (lacking higher level abstractions) as reflected in religion and primitive technology, an absence of writing and (conceptual) communication are all hallmarks of the primitive tribe.

  To survive, the tribe believes that it must allow the wisest member among them to make the major decisions for the others. Yet, most tribes languish in primitiveness because these leaders are merely followers of the "sacred" ideas that made them primitive in the first place: mysticism and brute force. In effect, the primitive tribe has barely advanced beyond its founding principles when all forms of expression were mere allegories about its earliest events. To this extent they are children in the wilderness.

  In some tribes, the chief must be the physically strongest member. This is because the tribe has decided it must be led by a physically strong leader who is able to force people to follow his edicts. By placing responsibility on one person who will allow no division or dissent, they establish a unity of thought and faith in leadership. This brute will, through his leadership and power, transfer that strength to the other members of the tribe. For a primitive man who could not survive by the use of his mind and technology, cooperation with the leader and group membership seemed viable and appropriate.

  Loyalty to the tribe

  Loyalty to the tribe is a cardinal requirement of any tribal member. The tribe cannot survive if there is dissent among any of its members. When survival is as precarious as they find it, then dissent is traitorous. Other tribes are enemies, devil-worshippers, inferior and hated destroyers. To kill an enemy is the highest achievement, and ruthlessness is the highest virtue. In fact, many tribes consider themselves "chosen" by their deity as His special people to be aided and protected. Anyone who does not exhibit loyalty to the tribe is an evil outsider who challenges the deity, casts evil spells and does not believe in the special character of the tribe. This makes this “one” person an enemy--worthy of death or defeat.

  Commonly held beliefs or myths

  The tribe must also have solidarity in ideas. Each member must believe in the same god, hold the same ideas and work toward the same goals. When individuals in a group hold the same beliefs, the leader can appeal to ideas that would foster the "survival" of the tribe. A collective "will" is developed that presumably makes the tribe stronger. How these beliefs are derived is a matter of speculation. What is relevant is that they imply that the universe is antithetical to man, that scarcity breeds the need for struggle. Therefore, tribal solidarity is essential.

  The primitive mind sees the universe as barren, destructive and against man's survival. Such a view creates fear-ridden mentalities that cannot stand to be alive.

  The primitive lifestyle is not as idyllic as often portrayed. The thought processes of the primitive are wholly group based. Every thought is of "we," every injunction is a duty for "us," every enemy is "our” enemy, every god is "our" god, every belief is "our" belief. There is simply no such idea as the Individual and to question anything held by the group is a punishable crime. Even a personal wish, if any exists, must be rationalized as a wish to help others. The primitive mind is never told that suffering in life is created by the very ideas it holds.

  Ritual practices

  Ritual practices allow for the release of physical energy and the pooling of that energy toward the goals of the tribe. The goal of ritual practice is not only to reenact the lives of the gods and impart moral themes (laws) handed down from the gods, but also to allow each person the opportunity to declare himself a member of the tribe. Ritual practices allow each person to fit into the collective and thereby to judge himself a full-fledged rightful member. Ritual joining involving the "acting out" of ancient myths, is achieved by constant repetition of actions or words. Such joining makes the person feel that since he does the same thing others do, equally as well as they, then he must be all right. He is good. Most often such rituals are not that difficult to imitate.

  Ritual practices, designed to pay homage to, and therefore appease, the gods, are replete with what I call "collective masks." An outgrowth of ritual, the ritual mask, is a menacing or angry look on the face of group members, parents, peers and ritual leaders. Such masks create fear, humiliation and physical anxiety. They communicate anger to the Individual and engender conformity. The Individual must act to avoid being attacked by the menacing monster, the god who speaks through the mask and through the collective.

  In mythology, when the light-bearer, Prometheus, succeeded in bringing light to mankind, the response of Zeus was anger and vengeance. Prometheus was thrown back down to earth, hung on a tree and then punished mercilessly. Thereafter, Prometheus became the symbol or paradigm for a crucial lesson for man: don’t attempt to be as good as the gods or else
you will be punished forever. The battle against the Individual by the collective was thereby begun and thereafter man became the neglected pawn whose role was to do as told. Weapons of war became the technology of the day, the means for the imposition of “god’s vengeance” against the collective’s enemies and those who would act as they wanted. Envy was let loose. The only question was: who was god’s representative?

  The problem with relating mythology to modern times is that the people who created these myths were likely under extreme stress and survival pressure. Much like children, these men were groping for understanding and security in their lives. The myths that now form our collectivist and role paradigms were often false interpretations of natural forces. Civilizations may have been created by “law-givers” who taught men how to “behave” but there was also much treachery, looting and murderous vengeance imposed by the “law-givers” to create order. And there was much “misbehaving” by individuals who were, like modern humans, seeking to understand their own natures. The Individual was given ritual, commandments and restrictive moral codes rather than taught how to think. You either found an understanding of reality from your own thinking or it was given to you by the culture. The culture taught that the best thing to do was to ritually sacrifice your best to god in order to find collective justice and peace. Questioning the validity of sacrifice was out of the question. Prehistory was the birth-time of collectivism because primitive man simply didn’t know any better. The question is: what do we “know” now?