Us and Them

 

A leftist friend posts this cartoon on Facebook, with the caption “the public good vs. individual liberty.”

It’s been bugging me. No doubt because it looks superficially true. The right stresses individual liberty. The left stresses group identity. This looks from a distance like selfishness. Individual = self = selfishness.

Nevertheless, conservatives consistently give more to charity, do more volunteer work, and are more likely to belong to voluntary associations—think churches. In other words, they care more about community than the left. The left may speak of “community,” but they generally mean people they do not know who share the same interests. Here “community” is a euphemism for “tribe” or “special interest group.”

Selfishness has nothing to do with individualism. Stressing one’s individualism necessarily sets one apart from the “other.” But, equally, stressing one’s group identity necessarily sets one apart from “them,” the non-members of your group. Either is potentially selfish. But it is easier to be selfish in a group, because the group consensus can drown out the voice of conscience. And group selfishness can do much more harm than an individual. Think the Nazis, the Fascists, Stalinism, Maoism, Pol Pot and the Killing Fields…