Beyond east and west: How the brain unites us all  (New Scientist Magazine)

So are you a collectivist or an individualist? Is that purely a philosophical position you take, or do you think it's more fundamental than that? If it's philosophical, what informs your belief?

Mina.

---

Post Merge: March 10, 2009, 06:24:43 AM

---

For myself I'd say I probably tend more towards collectivism because I firmly believe that a stable, happy society guarantees greater freedom and happiness for individuals as well, though I'm also quite individualist in terms of the importance of personal growth and self knowledge and that people be afforded the freedom to do as they will as long as that freedom doesn't negatively impact on anybody else.

Mina.

There is both the public and private worlds.

In my vastly limited experience it seems that life requires both, so you can't do an either or thing.  But I don't get out much.

Collectivism is good for the people as a whole. However, I must be an individualist because it's hard for me to conform to prevailing patterns of some of society. I have to be me.

I'm a radical individualist, but I look at it in the context of emergent behavior - a prosperous and happy society arises from individuals pursuing their enlightened self-interest.  Top-down policy imposed by "the authorities" scares me.

Collectivism of whatever sort is perfectly fine with me as long as it's voluntary.

I'd have to go with "both" and one who places a lot of importance on human relationship and interaction and prolly leans more to the collective as it's part of our in-born species-life. We don't do well totally alone. Individualists seem to do especially poorly when they are alone: they get all of these notions about "making it by myself" and "needing no one else" yet they never seem to make anything much but arguments to support their radical individualism any maybe like Ms. Rand publish them and are then radically individual because morons pay the radical individualist to read her tripe!

Sucker born every minute!

I prefer that we find ways to work together since at this point it's pretty much imposible to be writing this at an internet forum and not be radically collected into social collectivist constructs!

Nichole

Quote from: Nichole on March 10, 2009, 12:09:26 PM
I prefer that we find ways to work together since at this point it's pretty much imposible to be writing this at an internet forum and not be radically collected into social collectivist constructs!

Whu-wha?  I'd hardly call Susan's a collectivist construct.  The site as a whole doesn't have any goals or priorities that take precedence over those of its members.  If people don't like the topics or attitudes or whatever on here, they leave, and people whose individual attitudes align more closely with the site's mission will eventually replace them.

Anyway, where do people get the idea that individualists are antisocial solipsistic Objectivist survivalists?