How do you reconcile the opposing drives of collectivism and individualism? Or put differently, how do you create a society which is both free and cohesive?
That is the question I am asking myself nowadays. It was like a background noise in my head but after watching Barefoot Gen, it became more clear. For the ones didn't see the movie/manga. Gen had that conversation with his father about war and Japanese government. People of Japan, according to movie, already know they left with no army or weapon and they should end the war. However idiots on the government kept pushed it 'till the worst days in the human history occured. More recently our country led my monsters... no easier way to put it for me, really. According to them they have 50% of the citizens behind them so they can do whatever they want. They are dragging country back in decades... or try to do it. Can you believe a minister could say "a woman who laugh loud in public is ill-mannered"? They try to make people forget this county was Kemalist(follower of Ataturk and his ideas) before it was Islamic Republic. Anyway looks like I am getting lost my train of thought and getting a bit angry. Hope that made some sense about my point in things... like I am totally lost.
well if you want to eschew the type of radical individualism libertarian conceptions pose, there's communitarianism and Marxism. If you want to reject collectivism, there's libertarian conceptions, deontologist individuality, and soft communitarianism so I guess you're option is some bastardized communitarian conception like Michael Sandel. to be prefectly honest I think it's hard to escape one without lapsing into the other in some way. <note this is simplistic and it's early in the morning, this is pretty complicated but that's all I'm willing to devote to this topic at this time>
I think Japan is like this, at least to some extent. It's a collective society in many ways but at the same time has creativity and freedom, and less ignorance towards different cultures, ways of dressing, etc. than "individualistic" America.
The collective agrees on a set of values aimed at securing the individual's rights. Without the whole recognizing the contributions and needs of the individual, there's a small chance of this happening, though.
Somehow, human society has managed to survive and make very significant structures on our planet. We are very social, but we're not eusocial like ants or naked mole rats.
