Collectives ain't all that bad.

Several of my politically conservative friends lament the ‘collectivist mentality’ in the USA. Claiming the individual should come first. And that maybe we are marching too much in lockstep. Of course, I think there’s room for both. For individual freedom and collectives. For a nice balance. Sometimes, circumstances call for we Americans to pull together. Rather than go off on our individual ways. For instance, when we go to war. It should be a collective effort. Not left to less than 1 percent of the population to fight. Or when it comes to providing health care. Let’s have it universal. So everybody gets covered. Yes, pool our resources. Let’s have a collectivist plan that severely limits profits. Doing what’s good for society as a whole. We shouldn’t let everyone go off willy-nilly and do as they please. Take the bankers on Wall Street, for instance. They don’t have an inherent right to bilk us. But they will. Unless we as a collectivist society see to it that they are regulated. I’m for individual freedoms. Particularly freedom of speech and freedom of thought. But I’m willing to surrender some of my ‘freedoms’ for the sake of benefiting society. For the common good. I’m even willing to be taxed. And to obey laws that require me to buy car insurance and health insurance. I’d even consider joining a collective to pay for it all. Really, collectives ain’t all that bad. –Jim Broede