Many heated political and philosophical debates, often overheard amongst the noise, music and smoke of the local pub or coffee shop have at their core an unnamed or unrecognized root conflict between the ideals of “individualism” and “collectivism.”
Simply put, should man pursue his self-interests or those of the community? Liberals tend to assume that “enlightened” individuals find no difference between the two. Many would argue that it is in your best interest to pursue goals of a wider community.
Conservatives and libertarians tend to fall more on the side of pursuing individual ambition with the idea being that should everyone in society pursue their own self-interest it will magically combine to produce a collective harmony…a rising tide of wealth spring forth.
In, “The Irony of American History” Reinhold Niebuhr explores this question in some depth noting the tension and angst of attempting the dangerous, but delightful work of being an individual in a community. He says,
The concept of “the value and dignity of the individual” of which our modern culture has made so much is finally meaningful only in a religious dimension. It is constantly threatened by the same culture which wants to guarantee it. It is threatened whenever it is assumed that individual desires, hopes and ideals can be fitted with frictionless harmony into the collective purposes of man. The individual is not discrete. He cannot find his fulfillment outside of the community; but he also cannot find fulfillment completely within society. In so far as he finds fulfillment within society he must abate his individual ambitions. He must “die to self” if he would truly live. In so far as he finds fulfillment beyond every historic community he lives his life in painful tension with even the best community, sometimes achieving standards of conduct with a resolute, “we must obey God rather than man.” Sometimes he is involved vicariously in the guilt of the community he would fain live a life of innocency. He will possibly man a bombing plane and suffer the conscience pricks of the damned that the community might survive.
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Part of the issue I find is that people are not static and so a community and the component individuals all change over time. Thus the struggle and friction is constant. I have found that unless there is an overriding goal that unifies the community, the friction often makes individuals break off into smaller and smaller groups. I’ll certainly have to read Niebuhr.