The more my philosophical outlook on life evolves, the more I am coming to realize that the concept of collectivism is likely very near to the root of all evil in this world. It’s not that the Maos and the Stalins and the empires of the world murder people en masse, and ravage and pillage the environment; it’s our collective belief that the mechanism – the State – these monsters use to commit these crimes is actually necessary.
The State is collectivism, writ large. It is the monster that is created by the concept of “we”: “We the People”. “One nation, indivisible”. “E pluribus unum.” This idea that we are all in this together, that we all have collective responsibilities. It sounds noble on paper, because fundamentally we all have the same wishes – to be happy, to be free from sickness and suffering – but we are, each of us, one of 7.3 billion people, with our own ego identities, our own experiences, our own distinct levels of consciousness, ripping each other’s eyes out over the best way to make the world a better place. It is this, it seems to me, that makes the world such an increasingly appalling place as it continues to be.
