Beugelsdijk, S., & Welzel, C. (2018). Dimensions and dynamics of national culture: Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10), 1469-1505.
I used to be one of those people who romanticized “the people” and valorized “the masses”.
Now I’m feeling a little different.
I’ve experienced a couple of decades of various masses in various countries increasingly choose nationalism, religious fundamentalism, chauvinism, xenophobia, autocracy, and brute naked majoritarianism when making political choices. All while whipping themselves up into a frothy hysteria just because they’re depressed, miserable, and need someone to blame.
Progressive collectivist ideals have failed to stem the tide of obscurantism and fear that the masses of the world are subjecting themselves to. It takes too long to get a message of social cooperation across the rising cacophony of rightwing fear mongering that appeals to our baser, easier to access emotions. Currently I fear the only bulwark against this rising fascism and misogyny across the globe is the rise of individualism that has, ironically enough, undermined leftist ideals of collectivism.
I don’t think the collective needs as much protection as leaders would have you believe. We are a social species and always will be. Even in this current age of mass disconnection due to digital alienation, people seek community any which way they can access it. We will never lose the social and we will never abandon the collective…for the simple reason that it is impossible to do so.
Humanity doesn’t need to fear individualism. On the contrary, I daresay we should cherish and nurture it. We already know that the individual needs the collective, but it’s important to understand the converse is equally true. The collective needs us to be individuals.
We don’t need saviors, prophets, or great men.
We just need each other as rational, individual beings.
love liberation struggle 