Collectivist Mindset

The phase “and the skill to use it” is so very telling. It is a microcosm of the collectivist mindset.

In a world where everyone has a gun, only a few will have the skill to use it.

Col. Cooper famously said:

“You are no more armed because you own a gun than you are a musician because you own a piano. The instrument is not the answer; the skill to use the instrument is the answer.”

This is advice that proves invaluable to pro-gun individualists yet it must seem terrifying to an anti-gun collectivist. (Note TWO distinctions)

Lamenting: “and the skill to use it.”

This reveals a “passive” approach to life. While the individualists will work hard to overcome an unpleasant aspect in life, the collectivist wonders “Why should I be bothered?” They believe that it is easier to simply hold everyone back than to obligate one half to keep up with the other half.

And they believe in a “social liberty” where no one has to worry.

I can sympathize, and I think most individualists can too. How often, as individuals, have we been held back or worse, had our efforts ruined or workload doubled all because of some fool insisting on his way.

Collectivism seems a downward spiral. As an individualist, I want to excel at what I’m good at doing and enjoy my personal activities without restriction on myself or others. If no one holds me back, I’ll hold no one else back.

I dislike be held back by an arbitrary system of rules. Rules to prevent morons and fools from making mistakes. But then there are those of us who double check, make sure, and then proceed after we understand our impending actions and their consequences.

Nope! Sorry, can’t do that. You might not know what you are doing!

Frustration…

The individualists resent the nanny-state. The great irony is the collectivists, once held-back by over-protective rules that don’t work, reveal in the call for MORE collectivism.

“Every one should be held-back equally!”

If they can’t excel, then nobody should excel. If they can’t be great let no one be great. No more keeping up with the Jones’s. The Jones’s now keep pace with you.

The victims of bullies become what they hate most. Bullies disrupt harmless people for going about there business. To stop some bullies heavily infringing on a few, everyone “bullies” everyone else “just a little” to prevent their being impeded more that anyone else.

They don’t even realize it.