Individualism vs. Sacrificial Collectivism

Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

I have new article on the news and commentary website, “EpicTimes,” on, “Individualism vs. Sacrificial Collectivism.”

Free market capitalism has resulted in more freedom and prosperity than the world has ever known. It is also the most moral political-economic system being based on an ethics of individual rights and peaceful, voluntary human association.

It is for this reason that all forms of collectivism in modern times – Soviet communism, German Nazism, Islamic fundamentalism – reject philosophical, political and economic individualism.

Why? Because individualism denies that there exist societal or political or religious “collectives” independent and separate from any individuals who choose or who are compelled to be part of them, and for which they are to sacrifice their life and personal purposes.

Individualism insists on the right of the individual to live and act for himself, guided by his own values, beliefs, and purposes in peaceful and non-compulsory association with others in society.

The death and destruction that has accompanied Soviet socialism, Nazi racism, and now Islamic extremism can all be seen to originate from and depend upon the misplaced idea that social, racial and religious collectives are “real” and individuals have no existence other than to serve and sacrifice for them, as the demagogic ideologues claiming to speak for these competing collectivisms insist.

This is why the defense of individualism is so important. It the only political-philosophic bulwark upon which a successful defense of liberty can be made and sustained.

http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2015/10/individualism-vs-sacrificial-collectivism/

Best,
Richard