Mamdani’s statement “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism” is getting a lot of attention (both support and ridicule).

Mamdani (and many others) posit a false dichotomy between the individual (rugged or otherwise) and a collective (warm or otherwise) group or subgroup of humanity. When you set up a conflict by suggesting it is one or the other, conflict we will get.

This simplistic duality and the favoring of one or the other (the individual or the collective) ignores the reality that we are all individuals with unique perspectives, gifts, and talents living within an interconnected web of life.

When the portrait of individualism is portrayed as an unbridled preference of one without respect for the foundational non-aggression principle, then it is an easy caricature to skewer with inflammatory rhetoric.

Similarly, to suggest that preference primarily for the “collective” (whatever group that is supposed to be) denigrates the unique nature of every member of the “collective” while also ignoring the historical atrocities committed in favor of the collective.

We can say it is about the “me”, we can say it is about the “we”, but the reality is, it is about “us”. There is no me alone, there is no we alone. “We” is always some subgroup of humanity that “others” some group, justifying aggression against them (whether of life, liberty, or property) to satisfy the wants and needs of the chosen “we”.

If instead we shift to an “us,” we can eliminate this false dichotomy and create the foundation for a true dialogue of how you, and me, and all of us can create new systems and structures to support all of us and our unique individual characteristics and desires.

Charismatic leaders have traditionally used a false “we” to “other” some group or individual and thereby justify violating the principles of non-aggression and nonviolence. Violating those principles will not create warmth nor, as is my call A Freer, Fairer, and More Peaceful World.

🌎 🙏