The Shallowness Of Collectivism

The only approach to philosophy and life that rivals consistent collectivism in its utter shallowness is egoistic emotionalism, with the former looking outward to other people that cannot even be proven to exist in the first place.  Egoism contains all the fallacies of emotionalistic and even certain relativistic frameworks, but at least each person can know with absolute certainty that they themselves exist!  Not a single external mind can be proven to exist.  One's own mind, however, is immediately known, even by those who never reflect on the epistemology of their own thoughts and perceptions.  Thus, collectivism is ultimately about literally looking to people that may not exist for life structure.

The epistemological errors of collectivism are obvious, as collectivist ideas must be embraced on grounds of popularity, tradition, or utilitarianism--unless a collectivist stands on the even more asinine foundation of arbitrary assumptions based on personal preference.  Individuals have direct access to their own minds, meaning they can immediately falsify stereotypes favored by their respective cultures, understand their own individual desires even when others sacrifice and ignore theirs, and think for themselves no matter how intensive the social conditioning around them is.  Only thanks to reason and self-awareness is a person able to reject the madness of collectivism.

It takes a person of depth to align himself or herself with truth for its own sake in a society that is adrift in a sea of assumptions, arbitrary beliefs, and emotionalism.  A shallow person outsources their worldview formation to others in exchange for feelings of security that stem from group inclusion.  Now, an important clarification can be made: a person is not shallow simply for desiring social connection.  Social desires can manifest themselves in deep and fierce ways, and humans are social beings.  Beyond this, desires are subjective, and desires for something that is irrational or immoral do not force someone to act on them.  Thus, desire on its own does not reflect someone's intellectual and moral standing.

However, waiting for other people to provoke all foundational, significant philosophical thought and simply accepting whatever one's family, local community, or broader culture cling to are chief examples of superficiality and laziness.  One cannot follow cultural tides and truthfully think oneself to stand on the right side of epistemology and reality.  Sincere collectivists willfully put themselves at the mercy of whatever stupidity, hypocrisy, and blindness their culture might cling to in the name of allegedly better consequences for the majority or for the stability of society.  Other than sheer relativism, there is little as asinine as collectivist epistemology and moral traditions.  Collectivism impedes more than just individuality.  It smothers rationality and justice as well.