The individual versus the collective

[Joshpantera]

I keep coming back to this thought all the time as I watch news media outlets and most of the battles going on today between people on the political spectrums. The pandemic and just about everything else. A human beings we seem to be wired towards gravitating closer to one or the other of these two opinions: 

 

1) Best for the individual.

 

2) Best for the collective. 

 

And heated arguments often flare up over these two primary conflicts of opinion. Here in the US, our constitutional republic is set up based on an emphasis on the individual and individual rights placed above the collective in most cases. And I see that that often comes with conflicting opinions from various British Commonwealth nations who tend more towards the national collective over individuals when it comes down to certain issues. 

 

In reality we're a collective of individuals. Everyone on earth is that. And it's been quite a problem to try and balance out what's good for both the collective as well as individual rights and personal freedom. Issue's like the pandemic bring that to center stage. And the offshoot of this problem runs off into issues of socialism, communism, and free market capitalist's. With the issue of the atrocities and failures that have come from communism, for instance, these failures and atrocities represent problems that come with taking collectivist views. As they play out, they tend to fail. The also tend towards major government over reach. 

 

The flip side is individualism. But then again, as I've spent time on Libertarian groups on social media I've seen more than I need to see from radicals on the individualist side of the spectrum. One example was some members railing against local government involvement with contractors and contractor licensing. The idea is that the market will weed out the wanders on it's own. Contractors don't need the state to license them, their work will determine whether or not they succeed. 

 

I stepped in, as a sub contractor who works in relationship with general contractors, and disagreed. There are people using contractor con schemes to rob people of money, often without doing any work. Especially around hurricane season. And they get away with it. There are reasons to require some sort of verification of one's ability within a given scope of business or trade. And I had some rabid idiots trying to argue with me tooth and nail about it. I wound up just dumping that group. 

 

I guess it just seems better to try and locate the perimeters of where I look no further left of a given side of the political spectrum, and I look no further to the right of the political spectrum either. Or else it's too much collectivism or individualism gone wild! 

[Robert_Tulip]

Hi Josh

 

The Constitution of Liberty, by Friedrich Hayek, summarised here, provides a careful and useful analysis of these issues of the relationship between the individual and the collective.  Hayek explains that individual freedom can only operate properly in the context of rule of law.  That means the type of libertarianism that rejects state regulation and standards is a dangerous form of utopian anarchy.

 

Robert

[Joshpantera]

8 hours ago, Robert_Tulip said:

Hi Josh

 

The Constitution of Liberty, by Friedrich Hayek, summarised here, provides a careful and useful analysis of these issues of the relationship between the individual and the collective.  Hayek explains that individual freedom can only operate properly in the context of rule of law.  That means the type of libertarianism that rejects state regulation and standards is a dangerous form of utopian anarchy.

 

Robert

 

Thanks Robert, I'll check that out. 

 

Another issue is that environmental destruction would be many times fold what it is now without rule of law and regulation. Such as our fishing regulations on size limits and daily limits per person on fish. The state and federal governments both have to weigh in on regulation in order to keep people raping the oceans as they see fit.