Collectivism

The slavery of the masses. Slavery unto slavery. The goal of all forms of government that oppose complete and unrestricted individual Freedom and liberty is to collectivize the masses. They claim that only in the masses can you find virtue. They claim the individual is evil and any joy the individual has comes from the exploitation of others. They assume the individual is inherently evil; he must be ordered to do good, else he revert to his evil and selfish ways.

I say selfishness is something learned. It is not innate, it is learned by witnessing slavery. In a society where a man is allowed to reach his goals by the exploitation of others, why should he use his own means? If one is to use the talents of another individual to accomplish his goals, it must be by mutual consent. However, in our country, we still have the Selective Service. The government is able to call upon the masses for forced labor and sacrifice. We have Eminent Domain. The government is allowed to confiscate property without consent. We have the Income Tax. Again, the government demands our wages whether or not we get or want compensation. The people see this and say, "Why can't I do that?" Thus came the robber barons of the late 19th century and the multi-national corporations of today.

They are not some product of some form of brute capitalism, but they are collectivists themselves. They wish to collectivize the masses for the profit of the Corporate State. They fight against individual liberty because it empowers the individual to leave his job and go somewhere else where he will be justly compensated for his labor. If the working conditions are bad they will go elsewhere. It is the worker's right to organize into a union to demand better wages and working conditions. However, we have seen in the past where the government has stepped in on the side of the corporate powers to break up pickets and force unions back to work with their demands unmet. The Railway Labor Act has been used as recently as 2002 to slow down the strike by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

On the other hand, the government also has no right to force individuals to collectivize themselves. The Taft-Hartley Act effectively shut down union-only workplaces, but still allowed the so-called 'union shop' workplaces. That is, the employees are not required to be a member of the union prior to employment, but they still must join the union or pay the equivalent of the dues in a fee. The individual must have the right to not be represented, as well as the right to organize. I believe it is not in the government's best interest to forces an individual to collectivize. The socialist goal is to create one big union. In the Soviet Union and in China, unions were not allowed because the State is supposed to be the union working on behalf of all the workers. How convenient. Surely the workplace conditions in a factory are different than in an office building, surely the wages a farmer makes are different than the compensation of a communist party official. However, this is of no concern to the socialist agenda. All people are equal.

It is true all people are created equal, and are equal under the law, but it is ridiculous to say all people are should be treated equally in compensation. This is what effectively happens in any sort of collectivized society. Power over the individual is the aim in all such societies. Brotherhood and equality are always the lofty ideals claimed to be the central focus of these movements, but control and power are always at the root.

There is nothing wrong with people organizing into groups in order to better their conditions. Unions, religious organizations, conservation and environmental groups, et. al. all serve a purpose and the people should be free to organize. However, this is not the government's domain. In the eyes of the government, all people should be treated equally. Whenever any group is granted a special status, the only outcome is that people will be treated differently. We are a nation of individuals, with our own special talents and our own shortcomings.

I am afraid that today we see more and more collectivization and we must fight this. The only outcome is the slavery of all. People must be allowed to trade and associate freely as individuals, unrestricted by the government. Affirmative action and equal housing regulation only serve to undermine the Free Market and in the end perpetuate the idea that some people are unable to advance themselves on their own. This is an evil idea. It assumes that some groups of people are less capable than others. But this is not an issue of economics or politics or even law. This is a fundamental philosophical issue. The question is are people good, or are they inherently evil?

Like I stated previously, the collectivists assume that the individual is incapable of treating his fellow man decently. They want the government to force the individual into the submission of the masses. They deny the individual and speak of some collective entity. With that in mind, they have no problem with violating the individual's rights if it is for the good of the collective. If one speaks out against the collective he is crushed. The individual eventually becomes a slave to the collective. A slave to slavery. He doesn't even have the dignity of a master.

In our own dark history, there was a time when we enslaved our fellow man. It was the most evil form of slavery also; the only condition on whether one was a slave or not was the color of his skin. The only prerequisite was his lot in life. But the collectivists have gotten smarter over the years. They wish to convince you of your inherent wickedness, and they say the only salvation is to enslave yourself to society. They wish to make us into a country, a world, of altruists. They wish to deny you your own conscience, your own thoughts, your individual virtue. The master forces the slave to work. The master forces the slave to accept Jesus. The master forces the slave to say, "Yessa massa." However, deep down inside, the master can never force the slave how to think. The master can never convince the slave of his wickedness and the master's virtue. The slave knows well his own virtue. The collective can never have virtue, and where there is no virtue, there is wickedness.