For quite some time now, and more intensively since Covid appeared in 2019/20, a collectivist mentality has invaded much of our public rhetoric. Some of the older manifestations of this phenomenon have revolved around perceived victim groups, ie. people of colour, gays, women, trans people, etc. In these manifestations, the evil doers are also viewed in collectivist language, whites, straight people, men, cis people etc. In order to bring an end to these so-called modern-day injustices, the group of evildoers are constantly preached at and reprimanded in order to get them to change their ways. White people must acknowledge their privilege, straight people must acknowledge the equal validity of gay relationships, men must change their misogynistic ways, and cis people must accept that their binary vision is intolerant. In all of these modern-day victim dramas, the level of analysis is at the group level. Right from the diagnosis of the problem to its proposed solution the language is collectivist. At no stage is the question asked, whether all coloured, gay, trans, female etc individuals feel disadvantaged or victimised. It is simply assumed and if any individual in these supposed groups dissent from being included, they are often accused of having “internalized their oppression”. In short, the experience of the individual is sacrificed at the altar of collectivism.
Some years ago, a Facebook friend posted a meme that stated something to the effect of “if paying more taxes helps even one single disadvantaged person, then I am happy to pay more taxes”. It would be easy to simply dismiss such superficial clap trap as a form of virtue signalling, which it undoubtedly is. The underlying disease of which this virtue signalling is but a symptom, is once again the collectivist nature of the rhetoric. At no point in time does it occur to the virtue signaller that the fairest and most direct way of benefiting a disadvantaged person is to practice individual and voluntary charity. Instead of doing something out of one’s free will, something that may require individual sacrifice and generosity, the proposed idea is some vague form of redistribution of wealth from one undefined group to another. One could interpret this even more cynically and suspect that the individual so intent on higher taxation in order to help the poor hopes that others, with higher incomes would be more likely to be the targets of such taxation. In this case, because I know the person and know her to be a very generous individual, I see that the mentality is more misguided than sinister. It is this mindset however, this way of thinking, this soft socialism that is so very prevalent these days. Once again, individual action is sacrificed at the altar of collectivism.
Fast forward to 2020/21, the age of Covid 19. Apparently now, if you are unwilling to comply with various government mandates, such as lockdowns, masks, social distancing, QR scanning your movements and/or experimental vaccines you must be wanting the death of millions and the sad demise of your local grandmas. If I had a dollar for every time someone accused me of these genocidal tendencies over the last 12 months, I’d probably have enough money to solve world hunger single-handedly. Jesting aside though, it has really struck me over the last year just how few people are left who believe in individual, VOLUNTARY action. The narrative driven my governments, media and a number of opportunistic corporations is that of collectivism. I could address how flawed and anti-science all of these government Covid mandates are, and there is overwhelming, good quality evidence for that, but that’s outside the musings of this blog. Even if every single one of these mandates were the height of good science, at no point should collectivist thinking be applied, not even for the so called common good. At no point in time should a collective of people, which is made up of individuals and individual circumstances, be forced to wear masks for the benefit of a vague collective of others. At no point in time should a collective of people be forced to lock down and stop human endeavours, pursuit of livelihood and human connections for the benefit of a vague collective of others. At no point in time should a collective of people, be forced to give up their privacy, their private details and their daily movements for the benefit of a vague collective of others. At no point in time should a collective of people, with individual human bodies and individual health, be forced to compromise their bodily autonomy with an experimental vaccine for the benefit of a vague collective of others. And don’t come at me with cries of “oh but there are exemptions”. In light of the fact that these collective ways of thinking are mandated, often with threats of punishment for non-compliance, and pushed upon us by the media in a never-ending barrage of propaganda, that objection is farcical. So once again, in the age of Covid, individual action is sacrificed at the altar of collectivism.
All of the above bring me to my last and most important observation. Every single one of these collectivist solutions to their matching collectivist problems are fed to us by governments, the media and corporations with vested interest. They do not spring from some kind of organic “brotherhood of man” thinking. They are all concocted and cooked up from on high and fed to us in daily doses of “how to be good”. And you can tell that both the problems themselves and their solutions are false because an enormous amount of propaganda is employed to hammer them into your head every single day. If any of them were based on real Truth (capital letter intentional), they would speak for themselves. It would not require the propaganda machine. Few people have the courage to step out of line, because the condemnation is immediate. Whether you dissent from the victim vs perpetrator narrative in the culture wars, the collectivist approach to charity by taxation or the government mandated collectivist approaches to solving the Covid “pandemic”, the condemnation is swift and harsh. You must be a selfish individual who does not care for their fellow man. To this shallow notion, I have only one thing to say:
ALL MORAL AND RIGHT ACTION, IN ORDER TO BE MORAL AND RIGHT, MUST BE INDIVIDUAL AND VOLUNTARY!
Liberty Downunder 