Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
False dichotomy. There's a range of possibilities in between. Most Western societies (Eastern definitely lean to the collective end but that's very much a cultural difference and doesn't mean we have to "change" them) balance them, recognizing that individual rights matter but that the individual is often better served by existing in a cohesive community supported by collective action. "No man is an island" and "it takes a village". "Individualist" and "collectivist" are the ends of a continuum and being too far to one end or the other leads to problems. The trick is finding the right point on the line for a given society.The individualist tolerates differences. The collectivist demands conformity.
You also over-generalize, IMHO. I find a lot of so-called individualists who are very intolerant, my way or the highway types. The type who rants on and on or even takes legal (or other) action over the slightest affront to their "individuality". And there's collectivists who still recognize that the collective is made up of individuals and the individuals matter. They aren't all trying to assimilate your individuality Borg-style, but want to hear from the voices that make up the collective (i.e. society).
I've long argued that individual and collective human rights only gets us so far. We need to talk about individual and collective human responsibilities, too, mostly to each other. That alone gets us moving to the middle ground between these two extremes.