THE INDIVIDUAL IS IMPORTANT AND SO ARE INDIVIDUAL THOUGHTS. OUT OF OUR REALISTIC PESSIMISM COMES SOMETHING POSITIVE. A SOLUTION TO SOME OF THE OPPRESSIVE SHIT DICTATED TO US NO MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE. REMEMBER TO SOLVE A PROBLEM, ONE HAS TO RECOGNIZE IT. WE KNOW THE PROBLEM, DONT BE AFRAID TO SHOW YOUR DISCONTENT. IT IS AT LEAST A START. BY THE WAY JUSTKILLING SOME DOOM RIGHT NOW SOME EARLY SHIT. THANKX FOR LETTING ME VENT. JOHN E.
Individualist anarchism? Thats nothing I wanna be part of.. We need eachother - the collective - but like you say we are indviduals >>in the collective<<. Class consciousness, solidarity, direct action and workers' self-management thats the way to go.
BUT YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THAT THE COLLECTIVE IS SIMPLY ANOTHER FORM OF OPPRESSION LIKE LOWER CASE LETTERS. AND CORRECT PUNCTUATION.
The problem with individualism is that it does not challenge the state but rather encourages a lifestyle within it. Even Max Stirner suggested that it could be useful to work alongside others in the promotion of self. There is also the problem of rearing children.To follow the individualist line then, suggests that we should not inform children at all for to do so would be coercive. Other than that the freedom to be individual makes for a better collective society. Collectivism, or anarchist-communism, allows the individual to be unhindered. In the anarchist collectives in Catalonia anyone who didn't wish to join the revolution was allocated enough land to feed themselves and their family and left to their own devices. Hierarchy can be both individual and collective of course, and no matter what name or adjective you apply to it it is still a hierarchy, that is to say top-down rather than bottom-up. Bottoms Up!
i say individualism... collectives always build.. setup criterias for membership, and usually always end up becoming either a microcosim of what they were intially opposed to if not a mirror image of it.
I don't understand the pro collectivist position that is taken. It is value in the collective over the individual that brings nationalism, racism, sexism, so much of religious nonsense and that causes so many in the world to support state violence against that oppose the collective they feel part of. They do so much violence through a vote, to support an action by the collective (which disconnects the personal morality of their action), which they would never do on their own. Its the disconnect of personal responsibility for the morality of actions that allows so much support for so much evil done through the state. It is what creates the disconnect from the shareholder to the unethical actions of the corporation, even though it is the business they own a part of. It is collective pride that supports all the evils done that got a flying pass at the time. The murders committed by governments, cruelty exacted through religions, ignorance upheld though social norms because it was seen as part of the collective, and not seen as actions being committed by individuals. The liberty of the individual and the responsibility of the actions performed by the individual is what needs to be unmasked from the veil of collectivist ideas. Ideas like government, religion, racism and sexism that stem from viewing people as a collective rather than as individuals. It is the individual that acts, not the collective. It is the individual that thinks, not the collective. It is the individual that feels, not the collective.
If we gonna argue that way, so is the value in the invdiviuals that brings capitalism, bourgeois and false consciousness...
Ungovernable: Depends. Total collectivism can lead to a lot of rules and regulations, that are there just so that people don't have to get their view of the world challenged. Personal freedom is essential
Glorification of either the collective OR the individual leads to destruction. I think that an emphasis on collectivism, while making sure that the individual stays just so, individual is very important. I think we should understand that we're all individuals who need to band together to get things done. I also think that the "collective" should be kept in perspective. When you begin to see the collective as something other than SIMPLY a group of individuals working together, when you start to personify the collective or give it some kind of life, that's when things get out of hand. Then it will lead to an "us vs. them," situation, in which, of course, you get all the problems in collectivism as you said. Glorifying the individual should also never take place. To see what happens when that goes on, simply look at society today.