Individualism vs. collectivism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here is how George Will answers Elizabeth Warren's statement that we posted yesterday: Such an agenda\u2019s premise is that individualism is a chimera, that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Individualism vs. collectivism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here is how George Will answers Elizabeth Warren's statement that we posted yesterday: Such an agenda\u2019s premise is that individualism is a chimera, that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-12T09:30:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/\",\"name\":\"Individualism vs. collectivism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-12T09:30:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-12T09:30:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Here is how George Will answers Elizabeth Warren's statement that we posted yesterday: Such an agenda\u2019s premise is that individualism is a chimera, that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/10\/individualism-vs-collectivism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Individualism vs. collectivism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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Such an agenda\u2019s premise is that individualism is a chimera, that any individual\u2019s achievements should be considered entirely derivative from society, so the achievements need not be treated as belonging to the individual. Society is entitled to socialize \u2014 i.e., conscript \u2014 whatever portion it considers its share. It may, as an optional act of political grace, allow the individual the remainder of what is misleadingly called the individual\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n

The collectivist agenda is antithetical to America\u2019s premise, which is: Government \u2014 including such public goods as roads, schools and police \u2014 is instituted to facilitate individual striving, a.k.a. the pursuit of happiness. The fact that collective choices facilitate this striving does not compel the conclusion that the collectivity (Warren\u2019s \u201cthe rest of us\u201d) is entitled to take as much as it pleases of the results of the striving.<\/p>\n

\nWarren\u2019s statement is a footnote to modern liberalism\u2019s more comprehensive disparagement of individualism and the reality of individual autonomy. A particular liberalism, partly incubated at Harvard, intimates the impossibility, for most people, of self-government \u2014 of the ability to govern one\u2019s self. This liberalism postulates that, in the modern social context, only a special few people can literally make up their own minds. . . .\n

Many members of the liberal intelligentsia, that herd of independent minds, agree that other Americans comprise a malleable, hence vulnerable, herd whose \u201cfalse consciousness\u201d is imposed by corporate America. Therefore the herd needs kindly, paternal supervision by a cohort of protective herders. This means subordination of the bovine many to a regulatory government staffed by people drawn from the clever minority not manipulated into false consciousness.<\/p>\n

Because such tutelary government must presume the public\u2019s incompetence, it owes minimal deference to people\u2019s preferences. These preferences are not really \u201ctheirs,\u201d because the preferences derive from false, meaning imposed, consciousness. This convenient theory licenses the enlightened vanguard, the political class, to exercise maximum discretion in wielding the powers of the regulatory state.<\/p>\n

Warren\u2019s emphatic assertion of the unremarkable \u2014 that the individual depends on cooperative behaviors by others \u2014 misses this point: It is conservatism, not liberalism, that takes society seriously. Liberalism preaches confident social engineering by the regulatory state. Conservatism urges government humility in the face of society\u2019s creative complexity.<\/p>\n

Society \u2014 hundreds of millions of people making billions of decisions daily \u2014 is a marvel of spontaneous order among individuals in voluntary cooperation. Government facilitates this cooperation with roads, schools, police, etc. \u2014 and by getting out of its way. This is a sensible, dynamic, prosperous society\u2019s \u201cunderlying social contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

via Elizabeth Warren and liberalism, twisting the \u2018social contract\u2019 \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The choices are individualism or collectivism.\u00a0 Or is there something in between?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"