In reading a report from The International Man, a publication of Doug Casey, entitled Infectious Insanity, he talks about why so many young people in particular are going for collectivism. After reading the article, which impressed me, my understanding of what has been going on in this world made so much more sense. So for this article, it was off to the computer dictionary. The best definition was as follow:
collectivism
n.
The principles or system of ownership and control of the means of production and distribution by the people collectively, usually under the supervision of a government.
n.
The socialistic theory or principle of centralization of all directive social and industrial power, especially of control of the means of production, in the people collectively, or the state: the opposite of individualism.
n.
The doctrine that land and capital should be owned by society collectively or as a whole; communism.
More at Wordnik from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
But the first definition to be found was:
Collectivism
Collectivism is a value that is characterized by emphasis on cohesiveness among individuals and prioritization of the group over the self. Individuals or groups that subscribe to a collectivist worldview tend to find common values and goals as particularly salient and demonstrate greater orientation toward in-group than toward out-group. Wikipedia
The enemy has gotten to the Wikipedia definition and written it to sound idealistic. The definition from Wordnik is more realistic and does clue one into what is going on in society. Wikipedia says: “greater orientation toward in-group than toward out-group.” No wonder there is so much division and no concern for the other man. Freedoms are disreguarded. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are disreguarded since those documents are like cops are to robbers. All is to be sacrificed for the whole. This is their ideal but in reality only government can steal from one group and give to another group, without someone facing a prison sentence. So in reality, collectivists are supporting either socialism or communism. They deny other people’s rights, thinking they will gain, when in reality they will be enslaved or worse yet sent to a Siberian-type prison because they are vagrants. And these same collectivists will complain once things do not work out the way they had planned. They will have been working to take away other people’s rights and in the process will also have lost their own rights.
Doug Casey’s article was very good in that he explained how people go for such an idea. First of all there is a problem with ethics in that people are interested in taking something from someone else. As Mr. Casey points out, people who are down and out cannot figure that they will ever be able to have part of the wealth around them and are very prone to accepting such an ideology, of spreading the wealth around. Many young people have been, for quite a few years, unable to get jobs and have been living in their parents’ basements. After a good amount of time living in such dispare, they start dreaming of how they could get some of the wealth that is all around them. Mr. Casey points out that this is why Venezuela went so strongly into socialism – communism.
With the present unemployment being so low a great deal can change as these young people become employed and can see that they can be a part of society without stealing their where-with-all. This makes me think that maybe President Kennedy better understood what he was doing than what I had thought at the time in that he started the Peace Corps to get the young people to work and off the streets.
One of the things learned from Mr. Casey’s article is the difference between collectivism and socialism. Collectivism is a personal possession, basically “me, me, me, and forget you” (and how is this going to work without the government taking the wealth) whereas socialism is more “up with the state and forget you” (usually because they think the state will take care of them) but the state will take care of itself and the crooked politicians in the same way as has happened in Venezuela.
Mr. Casey thinks there is no way to avert the direction collectivism is going. I say there is a way to avert the situation, as employment is already changing some of the direction, education can also help change the course.
I believe God can and does change men’s hearts.