Preamble:
It is important to know about collectivism because it is almost the exact opposite of individualism and they are both very strongly opposing philosophies. Having some understanding of collectivism will help you better understand individualism
Collectivism is the political theory that people should be interdependent on others and all conform to the same ideas and worship the goals of group than that of the individual. It's a broad term that expands to many different topics and politics. Collectivists believe in order to form the more common good that the people should be united as a whole live their lives for the community, nation, or society.
Collectivism stresses the worth of the group instead of that of the individual. Collectivism has been expressed strongly through political philosophies such as socialism, fascism, and communism. Examples of collectivism can be viewed in our society such as things as privately owned media, and corporate America.
Part 2: America, Collectivist or Individualist?
Privately owned media can dictate the things that people watch therefore, they have control over what we view. If everyone views the same things than everyone is united by that. Corporations because they force people to all consume at the same products there for making shopping a common interest.
Those are examples of collectivism in a federal constitution republic, capitalist, democracy with two political parties (republicans and democrats). If you think about it, even though we have a democracy it really is another form of collectivism because only the people who vote, and the majority's opinions rule.
Individualism can play out in America through capitalism, but it's very limited what you can do because of laws, government, coercive institutions such as school, and money. It's a system of working for others all your life and maintaining your lifestyle. Also, it becomes even more collective because you have to conform to others expectations, and if everyone has to meet those expectations than everyone eventually sells themselves to popular opinion, in order to have more freedom.
So freedom is limited, to how much money you have, and how others feel about you.
For example, one trying to enter the workforce knows that she may have to dress a certain way and act very friendly and be basically a yes-man for her boss in order to get the job. She wants the job because she needs the money to support her psuedo-bohemian lifestyle, she can't afford to dine at high end restaurants if she works odd jobs. So conforms herself to a common system of doing things in order to have more freedom and power.
That is an obvious idea of collectivism because she is molding her mind to the beliefs and behaviors of
the majority.
So America is unfortunately more collectivist than it ever will be individualist. Unless you are willing to break all rules than individualist. The moral worth of the individual does not exist in this society, because we are constantly told to fit into other people's molds, the legislative branch places laws that say what we cannot do, class and jobs create a hierarchy that people are defined by, and authority basically strips away the purpose of individualism because you have to be a slave to authority in order to gain some freedom ( which doesn't even exist because of the limitations of rules).
So it's justifiable to say that American is collectivist, in a very divided, organized, and clever way.
