The Pros And Cons Of Collectivism

The movie The Truman Show and the book Anthem, both address collectivism as well as individualism. However both are trying to say something to the viewers in there own way. In this essay I will be comparing the ideals of individualism and collectivism so that each perspective is shown. To begin this you must first know what the two ideals are and how they contrast with each other. Individualism Is when everyone has a responsibility only to the individual, the work they do and the outcome of the work directly benefits their own self.

Individualism: Individualism is the term that refers to the ways in which people identify themselves and focus their goals. Individualism gives priority to personal goals as opposed to the goals of a group or society. Once the men have stepped off the bus on Parris Island they give up every aspect of individualism, they are stripped of all valuables and given the same clothes and haircut which they will wear for the remainder of time. American cultures which are seen almost daily are the ability to voice your own opinion, choosing your personal perspective, and even just the choices you choose to make. Individualism is something that can differ between cultures, but most cultures share certain qualities.

Individualism is the idea that a person’s life belongs to them and that they have an absolute right to live it as they sees fit. The people of modern society have the right to pursue the values of their choosing. As an individual we have our own opinions, this gives us the freedom to expand our life in ways we couldn’t

Individualism-> when you value the freedom and worth of the individual, sometimes over the security and harmony of the group or a belief in the importance of the individual and the virtue of self-reliance and personal independence

Individualism is the idea that the individual's life belongs to him and that he has an inalienable

Throughout Anthem the reader’s perspective on Collectivism is persuaded to be negative due to the author’s point of view. “Collectivism is the idea that the individual’s life belongs not to him but to the group or society of which he is merely a part, that he has no rights, and that he must sacrifice his values and goals for the group’s common good”(Biddle, Craig. "Collectivism vs. Individualism." The Objective Standard. 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.) Rand depicts the evils and negativities of Collectivism by showing how they aren’t allowed to think for themselves. They aren’t allowed to do things alone, have personal values, and love is also outlawed. Another negative aspect Rand portrays within collectivism is that all men must be alike and look out for their brothers. “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen.” (Rand 21).

In addition, collectivism and individualism have few comparisons. One similarity in both societies would be people working together in an environment. In today’s society, people are working together on a daily basis regardless if it is in a work environment or in general. Also, in Anthem the society is working together. In the novella,

“Individualism is the idea that the individual’s life belongs to him and that he has an inalienable right to live as he sees fit, to act on his own judgement, to keep and use the product of his effort, and to pursue the causes of his choosing.” My take on individualism, is basically that we can control ourselves, we can do what we want with restrictions to keep those that stand by us safe. Individualism is a way of a society. Now, on the other hand there is collectivism, “the idea that the individual’s life belongs not to him but to the group or society of which he is merely a part of has no rights, and that he must sacrifice his values and goals for the group’s greater good.” My take on this is “idea” is that you are completely controlled when put under this way of society. Having read the book Anthem by Ayn Rand collectivism is for sure something that I would not want to be a part of.

Individualism it is the idea that the individual should possess the freedom to define him as opposed to a government definition of who he is and what he is. Individualism is the freedom to achieve based upon your own talents, abilities and ambition. It is a contradiction to a collective defining of worth and purpose that accommodates a stagnating philosophy of government oppression. Individualism has always encouraged the individual to have a lot of power over them selves and encourage the scocpe of the government to

Individualism could mean many things, for instance being yourself or simply saying ¨who cares¨. In my opinion, this word means ignoring what other people in a society have to say. It is to just allow yourself to be free and live your life how you want to live your life. For example, Mark Twain's satiric novel, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn in the Antebellum South on the Mississippi River, published in 1844 promotes individualism through Huckś actions, the novelś main character.The author writes this in order to condemn the racism, Hypocrisy, and slavery of white society, similar to Walt Whitman's Free verse poem, ¨Song Of Myself,¨ from the collection of Leaves of Grass published in 1855, Whitman conveys that everyone has an equal place on this earth and composed of the same atoms .Whitman's purpose for composing this poem is to make the audience feel as if they have equal power in a society since the Industrial Revolution made society feel as if people had little power. Which also comes to a very important researcher named James McPherson, a historical nonfiction researcher who ,wrote ¨What We Fought For¨set during the Civil War describing why and what the North fought for. McPherson purpose is to inform the Union's soldier's motivation and hardships during the war. In the 19th century, being an individual meant that one could live in a society and just try to face them and suffer; however, he or she can just take themselves out of the whole problem by leaving society

For the last century, individualism vs. collectivism has been a political conflict in America. What is collectivism and individualism you might ask, well collectivism is briefly defined as a group of people working together to give priority over individuals. On the other hand, individualism can be defined as a theory of favoring freedom over collective individuals and working to benefit his/her own self. Although the two seem very different, they also share many similar characteristics.

The article, Charlottesville and the Perils of Collectivism, talks about the protest in Charlottesville, Virginia and the dangers in the rise of collectivism from the neo-Nazis and neo-confederates. According to Thio, A & Taylor, J (2011), the symbolic interaction theory states that, “if members of the dominant group perceive minorities as undesirable or dangerous, the interaction between them is tense or superficial (p 63).” Throughout the article Boehm talked about white nationalism and the politically motivated violence that was brought in Charlottesville. As stated in the article collectivism was the real enemy as collectivism is “one cleverly disguised but nurtured by a group of people who profess to hate the idea (Boehm, 2017).” The

1) An individualist is considered to be someone with personality and character, someone who is not easily intimidated by social pressure or customs, someone with a personal opinion and a singular view of the world. Because modern society finds it important that people think independently, decide autonomously and take personal initiatives, the concept of individualism has acquired a positive connotation. However, individualism is also linked with the tendency to withdraw from social life and turn in towards oneself.

Expanding on that, a person is immeresed in his/her culture since birth, and has no choice but to adopt the values necessary to survive. An individualistic community encourages a person to make his/her own choices; moreover, one would be less concerned about the “we” and more concerned about the “I”. This lowers conformity levels, because each person is willing to do what he/she wants and is more concerned about self-surival than harmony in the community. A strength of this study could be participant variability because it eliminates the possibility of this behavior only being limited to one type of person/community. Accordingly, a limitation could be the lack of ecological validity (one will not be asked to identify the length of a line in real life), and the multitude of confounding variables including the time and place, which could influence the results. Overall, the study demonstrates how individualism affects behavior, since a person who demonstrates indivdualistic behavior would exhibit less conformity, as seen above.

2. Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): The extent to which a society is based on the needs of the individual as opposed to the needs of the group.