In defense of Societal collectivism

Coming from a culture which believes in collectivism, individualism bothers me a lot. Collectivism is prioritizing others’ needs before yours whereas individualism is exactly opposite of that. In individualism, everything revolves around you and your worth. The reason my article is on individualism is that I want to promote collectivism. With collectivism comes support, ease, and love. At least, that is what I believe. Though I am bragging that I come from a culture that fosters collectivism, I did face my fair share of bad experiences with individualistic people. I know it hurts and takes so much away from others for example faith in humanity.

Let me tell you a personal example. I lost my father on 1st January 2018. When he lost consciousness at home, we took him to a hospital. He was given oxygen but his situation was deteriorating. So, the doctors asked us to shift him to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) which was on the 4th floor. He was put on a stretcher trolley and a nurse was pushing it towards the elevator. My mother, brother and I were running behind that stretcher trolley with all of our bags. I saw one male medical student and a female medical student coming behind us to catch the elevator. As the elevator was not that spacious, there was not enough room for all of us. They were probably in a relationship, at least that’s what I assumed from their behaviors and gestures with each other.

The female student was hesitant to be in the elevator with us when she saw my father’s condition and wanted to get off the elevator and make room for us. Her boyfriend grabbed her arm and asked her not to leave. I saw that and decided to go to the fourth floor by climbing the stairs with all our luggage. My brother had to join me too because of the overcrowding. We carried all the things that we took with us on that day and literally ran towards the stairs.

Now, my point is that they were two well and sound human beings who could have easily climbed the stairs, seeing my father’s condition. But that man chose his self-centered approach, leaving us out of the elevator.

From my other experience, in the USA, I am going to say how self-centered approach hurts. As I work as a TA, I have to ask my students to peer-review their classmates’ papers. After putting students in the groups on Blackboard, some students lag behind because of late submission. Some group members did not get any help at all from their classmates just because they were late.

Now, my point is that it does not hurt to read a draft for a few minutes and leave comments to help other classmates polish their writing. It is not wise to think that I submitted my paper on time and got feedback from group members, so I am done. A pinch of collective sense could be really helpful to students who needed feedback badly.

However, I know that individualism comes with lots of benefits too. Individualism offers personal freedom and autonomy, fosters personal growth and creativity, appreciates individualistic achievements etc. But my focus is not on that, as I think it offers a little for humanity and its well being. As human beings, we are supposed to live in a society with other people. To maintain a basic harmony in this world, we have to take care of our society.

If we do not care about each other for our individualistic purposes, then who is going to do that? When we alienate ourselves in the name of self-love, it becomes a threat to our future. When hardships hit us hard, we barely have support to save us from drowning. Personal freedom, autonomy, independence, are not going to help much if we look at our society from a larger perspective.

In an individualistic society, you are more concerned about your comforts and discomforts that you tend to miss the torments that your partner, friends, family members are going through. As individuals, we are different. We are supposed to be different.

When two people stay together, we have to understand that we may have come from two different families. We can be from two different continents and countries. Places and countries bring differences in our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that give us very little scope to complain about. I mean differences are bound to happen that we can’t deny.

We need to work on our differences and respect that space. The concept of individualism makes that process harder to make it a success. Individualistic approaches do not let you compromise with the situation. You put your needs above the people around you.

Individualistic people live a life that is without any purpose except their own interests and achievements. Our life gets its full potential when we look beyond ourselves and come forward to lend a hand to each other. But if we always think about our benefits no matter what the situation is, our simple existence becomes the reason for the doom of a messed up society. Just imagine having a friend or life partner who believes in getting the best out of every situation for their own sake!  

Individualistic approach offers fewer people around our life. When you run after your personal gains, you can’t expect others to be there for you. Eventually, fewer people means lesser support, be it emotional, financial, or any type. As an international student in a foreign land, I know how important it is to have a support system. I am still here because some people helped me survive here including black, white, and brown people. What if all the people who have helped me were believers of individualism? What if they wanted me to figure everything out on my own? The answer is simple. I would not write this article for you. With individualism does not come this support that I got, from academic help to accommodation.

If you are not invested in relationships then you get poor outcomes from them. In my opinion, individualism puts importance on you whereas relationships want you to think about others. But when you ignore that part, it leads to poor mental health. You make yourself suffer and others too.

As a believer of individualism, you live your life in depression and alienation. Cutting ties from people, shunning your loved ones, and ignoring others’ needs bring forth a poor mentality. Once you get used to it, it gets dangerous day by day. Eventually, you are the sufferer!

My purpose is here not to dissuade you from pursuing your happiness. That is not my job as a contributing writer of this newspaper. The point that I tried to prove is that individualism promotes self-centeredness in the name of self-love. I am not denying that collectivism does not come with some drawbacks. It suppresses individuality, promotes group thinking, boosts resistance to change etc.

My point is that individualism creates fissures among us. This individualism theory pushes us to avoid sacrifices of little things like spending time, hanging out, lending a listening ear to people etc. Honestly, the list is longer than you think! I want you to spend some “me time”, love yourself, be a career oriented man or woman, ensuring that you do not ignore others who need you and want you to be a part of their life. And to do that, we need to think collectively.