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Collectivism Quotes

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Collectivism Quotes

“In the anarchist milieu, communism, individualism, collectivism, mutualism and all the intermediate and eclectic programmes are simply the ways considered best for achieving freedom and solidarity in economic life; the ways believed to correspond more closely with justice and freedom for the distribution of the means of production and the products of labour among men. Bakunin was an anarchist, and he was a collectivist, an outspoken enemy of communism because he saw in it the negation of freedom and, therefore, of human dignity.”

MenWayHumansMeanJusticeEnemySawsEconomicAchieveProductsDignityProductionsCommunismLabourIndividualismSolidarityDistributionAnarchismAnarchistProgrammesCollectivismHuman DignityEclecticNegationOutspokenMilieu
Book:Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta
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“[American] conformism might approximate collectivism, not so much in economic respects, and not too much in political respects, but very much in the pattern of daily life and thought. Whether this will happen or not, and if it does to what degree, is partly dependent on the power of resistance in those who represent the opposite pole of the courage to be, the courage to be as oneself.”

IfsDoeMightHappensPoliticalToo MuchEconomicDegreesOppositesPatternsOneselfResistanceDependentDaily LifeCollectivism
Author:Paul Tillich
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“By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for egoism, and it found its way at once into everyone's mouth, although it is utterly devoid of meaning, since it points to nothing that ever existed in mankind; This hybrid or rather this degenerate form of hedonism served powerfully to invest collectivism's principles with a specious moral sanction, and collectivists naturally made the most of it.”

WayMadeFormFoundTermCan DoMoralPrinciplesMankindMouthsConsequenceAltruismSanctionsEgoismCollectivismDegeneratesHybridHedonism
Author:Albert J. Nock
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“Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime, the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told.”

MightPoliticalEasyResponsibilityMankindCitizensCapacityResponseSoldierBurdenArguingIndifferenceRegimesInitiativeConsideringDispositionConditioningCollectivismRelievedGullibility
Author:Albert J. Nock
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“Socialism, whether it's the 'soft tyranny' of the EuroAmerican management state or the murderously repressive forms taken by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot, is all about disindividuation, a steady, relentless erasure of the individual differences among us, everything that makes us who we are. 'Everybody in, nobody out!' is the marching mantra of militant collectivized medicine, but it accurately describes all other aspects of collectivism as well. No alternatives allowed, no choices, no individualism, no individuality, and ultimately, no individuation.”

WellsStatesFormChoicesIndividualDifferencesTakenAspectManagementMedicineIndividualityTyrannySocialismAlternativesWho We ArePotSteadyIndividualismRelentlessMantrasCollectivismMilitantMaoIndividuationIndividual Differences
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“Most of us agree that the United Nations is the vanguard of a foreign invasion and must be driven from our shores. Liberalism - Progressivism - all forms of left wing collectivism, are equally alien to the Founders' America and must be extirpated, root and branch, laughter and derision being the most effective weapons. Look at the way they have reduced Hillary Clinton to an insignificant greasy spot on the pages of history, turned Albert Gore into an object of merriment, and are accomplishing the same for Barry and Micky Obama.”

WayLooksAmericaFormLeftNationsUnitedObjectsWeaponsPagesLaughterRootsAgreeWingsClintonDrivenSpotsAliensBranchesLiberalismShoreFoundersUnited NationsInsignificantInvasionGoreCollectivismLeft WingProgressivismMerrimentDerisionVanguardRoots And Branches
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“To require conformity in the appreciation of sentiments or the interpretation of language, or uniformity of thought, feeling, or action, is a fundamental error in human legislation -- a madness which would be only equaled by requiring all men to possess the same countenance, the same voice or the same stature.”

MenHumansFeelingsWould BeActionLanguageVoiceDiversityMadnessFundamentalsErrorsAppreciationInterpretationSentimentsConformityIndividualismLegislationCollectivismCountenanceStatureUniformity
Book:Equitable Commerce: A New Development of Principles for the Harmoneous Adjustment and Regulation of the Pecuniary,intellectual,and Moral Intercourse of Mankind,proposed as Elements of New Society
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“The basic struggle today is not between individualism and collectivism, free enterprise and socialism, democracy and dictatorship. These are only the superficial manifestations of a deeper struggle which is moral and spiritual and involves above all else whether man shall exist for the state, or the state for man, and whether freedom is of the spirit or a concession of a materialized society.”

MenStatesWisdomTodaySpiritualSpiritPoliticsMoralStruggleEconomyDemocracyDeeperSocialismManifestationLiberalismEnterpriseIndividualismDictatorshipSuperficialCollectivismFree EnterpriseConcessions
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“Psychologist Nathaniel Branden speaks of a benevolent sense of life possible to those with rational, productive values, vividly contrasted with the coercive parasitic group-culture of mystics and altruists we live in, where people all around you seem a burdensome annoyance, a threat to your survival. Having been told from childhood that life is a zero-sum game in which you owe everything to others, at some level you worry all the time that someday the bastards will collect. And collect they do, every April 15th. Why do you think they call it collectivism?”

PeopleThinkingSeemsLife IsValuesCultureGamesSpeakLevelsWorryGroupsChildhoodSurvivalThreatRationalProductiveSomedayZeroAprilPsychologistCollectivismBenevolentAnnoyanceZero Sum Game
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“Fast food workers are all the governor has power to enact. Your state legislature is held hostage by the same nitwits that hold hostage the federal [government]. People who have confused suffocating collectivism, which is bad, for a necessity to solve collective action problems, which is what all human endeavor is based on.”

PeopleHumansStatesProblemGovernmentActionWorkersSolveConfusedCollectivesEndeavorGovernorsFederal GovernmentLegislatureCollectivismFast FoodHostageSuffocatingState LegislaturesCollective Action
Author:Nick Hanauer
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“Collectivism takes on many guises and seldom uses its own real name. Words like 'community' and 'social' soothe us into thinking that collectivist decision-making is somehow higher and nobler than individual or 'selfish' decision-making. But the cold fact is that communities do not make decisions. Individuals who claim to speak for the community impose their decisions on us all.”

ThinkingRealFactsUseNamesIndividualSpeakSocialCommunityDecisionColdHigherClaimsSelfishDecision MakingCollectivismGuise
Author:Doug Bandow
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“It is a truism that the structure of a society is basically determined by its technology. Not in an absolute sense-there may be totally different cultures using identical tools-but the tools settle the possibilities; you can't have interstellar trade without spaceships. A race limited to a single planet, possessing a high knowledge of mechanics but with its basic machines of industry and war requiring a large capital investment, will inevitably tend toward collectivism under one name or another. Free enterprise needs elbow room.”

NeedsMayDifferentWarCultureNamesRoomsRaceTechnologyPossibilityPlanetsIndustryToolsMachinesAbsolutesTradeStructureInvestmentDeterminedSettlingEnterpriseMechanicIdenticalPossessingCollectivismElbowsSpaceshipsDifferent CulturesFree EnterpriseTruismInterstellarCapital Investment
Book:Trader to the Stars: Polesotechnic League
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“Margaret Thatcher was a 20th century visionary who understood the power of individual freedom versus the tyranny of government collectivism. She was a loyal supporter and friend of the United States and her terms as prime minister were marked as the beginning of the resurgence of the economy of the United Kingdom.”

StatesGovernmentIndividualTermUnitedUnited StatesEconomyCenturyUnderstoodTyrannyKingdomsMinistersPrimeLoyalSupporter20th CenturyPrime MinisterVersusVisionariesCollectivismUnited KingdomIndividual FreedomResurgence
Author:Joe Lhota
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

LongLastsRememberPoliticalFreedomDemocracySocietyWasteMurderSuicideLibertarianCommitCommunismRepublicLibertarianismFoundingSuicidalSuitableForms Of GovernmentCollectivismDemocracies HaveAmerican DemocracyFounding Fathers DemocracyVoting And DemocracyCommitting SuicideTyranny Founding FathersDemocracy In AmericaTyranny Of The Majority
Author:John Adams
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“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

EarthPoliticalReligionIndividualFreedomLibertyDemocracyRightsSubjectsProtectVoteFunctionMajorityOppressionMinoritiesIndividualismSmallestCollectivismRight To VoteIndividual RightsObjectivismPolitical OppressionMajority And MinorityMinority Government
Book:The Virtue of Selfishness
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“It is true that the virtues which are less esteemed and practiced now--independence, self-reliance, and the willingness to bear risks, the readiness to back one's own conviction against a majority, and the willingness to voluntary cooperation with one's neighbors--are essentially those on which the of an individualist society rests. Collectivism has nothing to put in their place, and in so far as it already has destroyed then it has left a void filled by nothing but the demand for obedience and the compulsion of the individual to what is collectively decided to be good.”

SelfIndividualLeftVirtueRiskBearsDemandDecidedIndependenceMajorityFilledConvictionBe GoodNeighborDestroyedObedienceWillingnessCooperationVoidSelf RelianceRelianceCompulsionReadinessCollectivism
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“The main characteristic of collectivism is that it does not take notice of the individual's will and moral self-determination. In the light of its philosophy the individual is born into a collective and it is "natural" and proper for him to behave as members of this collective are expected to behave. Expected by whom? Of course, by those individuals to whom, by the mysterious decrees of some mysterious agency, the task of determining the collective will and directing the actions of the collective has been entrusted.”

DoeHas BeensSelfPhilosophyLightActionCoursesIndividualBornNaturalMoralMembersDeterminationTasksExpectedSocialismMysteriousBehaveAgencyCharacteristicsCollectivesSelf DeterminationCollectivismDecree
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to "society," to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests. The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force - and statism has always been the poltical corollary of collectivism.”

WayKindMayMeanStatesIndividualForceNationsInterestLibertyRightsSacrificeGroupsSocietyEconomicEconomicsDoctrineTribesBrutesWhimCollectivismBrute Force
Book:The Virtue of Selfishness
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“Collectivism doesn't work because it's based on a faulty economic premise. There is no such thing as a person's "fair share" of wealth. The gross national product is not a pizza that must be carefully divided because if I get too many slices, you have to eat the box. The economy is expandable and, in any practical sense, limitless.”

IfsPersonsWealthLibertyEconomyShareEconomicProductsFairsBoxesLibertarianPracticalsDividedLibertarianismGrossLimitlessPremisesPizzaCollectivismFair Share
Author:P. J. O'Rourke
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“The public school system: "Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority."”

YearsMindSchoolLibertyCreativityExerciseAuthorityIntellectualSentencesLibertarianCompromiseCrushDestroyingIndividualismTwelveLibertarianismInquiryPublic SchoolMind ControlCollectivismMeekSchool SystemSmashingSubservience
Author:Walter Karp
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“As a cultural-intellectual power and a moral ideal, collectivism died in World War II. If we are still rolling in its direction, it is only by the inertia of a void and the momentum of disintegration. A social movement that began with the ponderous, brain-cracking, dialectical constructs of Hegel and Marx, and ends up with a horde of morally unwashed children stamping their foot and shrieking: "I want it now is through."”

IfsWorldWantChildrenStillsWarEndsSocialBrainLibertyMoralFeetMovementIntellectualIdealsEconomicsDiedWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiVoidWorld War IRollingConstructsMomentumCollectivismInertiaHordeHegelSocial MovementsDisintegration
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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