What history has suffered from the most is the COLLECTIVE. The collective subjugates the individual for the sake of the group. This is lyingly called the "common good". The danger begins when that unit, the collective itself, the group by whatever identity it calls itself, becomes the UNIT OF REALITY by which all good is measured.
Collectivism holds that the individual gains stature ONLY in relation to his service to the group. The individual is the first to be sacrificed! Sound familiar?
Interestingly, Fascism and Communism are opposites, but two rival gangs fighting over the same territory: human slaves. Both employ the Collective to achieve their purpose.
The collective cannot exist without the Mystic at its center! The elite rule by an elite source of __knowlege__which is a fund of revelations inaccessible to logic. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Genghis Khan, Pharoah--pick your poison. Under such leaders the individual is a pain in the ass and must be expunged. Even the lowly Watchtower Society rules millions of people in the smallest details of their everyday life by wielding mystical power: They Are Plugged In To God Himself!
How does the collective gain such power over people throughout history? The collective wields two powerful weapons: REASON and MORALITY which it co-opts for itself, redefines and imparts by propaganda.
Here is how it works:
1.Fundamental number one: The individual is a weak, helpless, mindless creature who must be fooled and ruled by an elite with an unprovable claim to superior wisdom, knowledge, reason and morality.
2.Fundamental number two: the individual must be taught not to trust his own mind. He must be force-fed a philosophy that says "it is death to trust your own judgement".
3. Fundamental number three: the members of the group are taught the only way to gain value is to give themselves totally to the group in full sacrifice. Anything short of self-sacrifice is betrayal and oblivion.
4.Fundamental number four: Indoctrinate all members of the group with fear and hatred for non group members. Personal identity is treason; only identification with the group grants personhood.
Soviet Russia declared that Communism would bring equality to all men and the Common Good was its goal. The reality was brutality, destruction of individuality, an elite clique of rulers and a populace living in subhuman misery for two generations.
The Watchtower Society has always been ruled by an elite group who are willing to sacrifice the lives of members and use their deaths as proof of their superiority over competing religions for sheer willingness to die for the cause. The deaths of children over the blood restrictions, the persecutions over political "neutrality", the isolation of school kids over bizarre beliefs against birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Flag salute, the self-righteous declarations at householders doors that "we are the only ones with the TRUTH", all serve to isolate, control and chain the individual to the whims of the elite few.
What is the golden balance between the individual and the group? Can there be a balance? Do all groups, societies, religions and states enslave and destroy what is unique and pure in ourselves?
As long as any individual refuses to believe his mind is impotent, his rationality is ineffective, his intellect is spurious, his self-guidance deadly--as long as this is refused and boldly proclaimed--no mind control and slavery can take root in him. We must always be willing to stand up and seize control of our own lives in the face of requests for self-sacrifice. There are no groups I know of who do not demand it of us!
Groups are a necessary evil. We must be very wary of their control and power wielding ploys.
There is no "common good". It is a lie. A dangerous lie.