The most common forms of collectivism are religion and Socialism. Regardless of the RELIGION, leaders of the religion will usually seek to have full control over the thoughts and actions of their members.
One of the reasons why most religions are against people becoming RICH is because rich people are harder to control. If you know anything about Christianity or reading the bible, it’s mostly about creating proper GOVERNANCE in your mind.
So, most Christians like to form governments that represent their VALUES. This is the real reason why Classical Liberals were able to take the reigns of MORAL authority away from the then CONSERVATIVES, who wanted the CHURCH/Religion to control the lives of the masses.
In life there are never wins or loses, their are merely tradeoffs, and the tradeoff to the separation of church and state, was the creation of BIG GOVERNMENT which seeks to mirror the Church under a differing moral authority and Liberty, which is what Christian GOVERNANCE revolves around.
If you’re a believer that some big government or some religion should control human beings, then there’s a good chance you will be in some way, shape, or form sympathetic to some form of collectivism.
Racists and nativists typically make up the largest chunk of socialists, second to believers in Direct Democracy. When most people think of nativists, they tend to imagine white supremacists. However, nativists are more abundant in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Why white people get blamed for everything is because in the modern world, on the surface at least, it appears as if white people are the wealthiest people on the planet, and because most of the planet identifies with some form of COLLECTIVISM, the concepts swirling around the minds of most humans, is that white people should have their PRIVATE PROPERTY taken from them and redistributed amongst “the not so fortunate.”
Although this might be viewed from the lens of racism, it’s better viewed from the lens of collectivism:
collectivism defined
the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.
“the Church has criticized the great emphasis placed on individualism rather than collectivism”
the theory and practice of the ownership of land and the means of production by the people or the state.
In a nutshell, collectivists are against PRIVATE PROPERTY, which also includes CENSORSHIP. Nativists, for example, do not want people to speak out against their nativist agenda.
For example Islamists seek to CENSOR individuals from speaking out against Islam, White Supremacists seek to silence people who oppose their National Socialist agenda, and Democratic Socialist like to use the popularity of their ideas to censor individuals who disagree with their ever-evolving ideologies and communism revolves around the State controlling the means of production, which basically means that communists don’t believe in property rights.
With that said, let’s talk about the downside to FREE market Capitalism, because there in life there are only trade-offs.
FREE Market Capitalism
A free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers.
An economy is capitalist if private businesses own and control the factors of production. A capitalist economy is a free market capitalist economy if the law of supply and demand regulates production, labor, and the marketplace with minimal or no interference from government.
The upside to free market economy is the abundance it provides, the downside however is that market economy is God’s creation and therefore is reflective of an individuals MORAL compass.
Capitalism was able to flourish under CHRISTIANS because of their moral compass, because as many people know, the Chinese were one of if not the first to employ a MARKET-based economy, and they were not Christians.
Why then did Capitalism flourish so Quickly in the United States? Well, because initially when the U.S. was founded it wasn’t only based on Christian principals it was also against the idea of a monarchy, religious prosecution, taxes and regulations on PRODUCTIVITY.
With that, we must also be honest about what was considered PROPERTY when the U.S. was founded. As was the case in the bible, some Christians had acquired slaves, which were considered PROPERTY.
In order to justify slavery under a capitalist system, the slave owners often wanted unique laws just for them. This CRONY-CAPITALIST system became the basis of the civil war in the United States.
One human OWNING another human is not free market capitalism; it’s a form of SOCIALISM that requires a BIG GOVERNMENT to maintain it. So, under a racist system, the GOVERNMENT would be in bed with SPECIAL INTEREST groups, and this is obviously not a free market capitalist system.
Suppose there was so much DEMAND for these hard-working slaves that a capitalist was willing to PAY the slave? However, laws made it so if you were Black, you could NEVER be free to participate in the free market system.
Why would a Christian help to ENFORCE a silly law like that?
Free market capitalism allows for BANKRUPTCY, and socialism seeks to assure that the government NEVER goes bankrupt as all the people, their labor, and property all belong to the State.
Under a collectivist system, regardless of how bad the LEADERSHIP is, the people will be STUCK serving the religious leaders, the monarchy, and/or the Big Government.
In the Bible for example, one the root causes of FAMINE, social and economic hardships, revolved around leadership not following the word of GOD. Now, as Christians, we all know why we choose Capitalism or collectivism; it’s because no man is perfect. However, the market educates on the good/godly ideas vs. the bad ideas.
The Bible also shows us that PRIVATE PROPERTY is not absolute; free markets can also involve land changing hands by FORCE. You might argue that this is wrong, which on the surface sounds true, but if a capitalist, for example, is POLLUTING or poisoning rivers, it’s unlikely that anyone would object to having that person’s private property taken from them.
So again, were talking about anything being PERFECT, we’re merely arguing for which system of GOVERNANCE, better serves mankind. Morally it’s impossible for Christian to be a COLLECTIVIST, with that said, one must be sympathetic that a lot of people are literate and/or have ZERO interests in reading the King James Bible for themselves.
If I choose not to read the Bible, or if I read the bible and lend myself to allow someone who wants to control me to interpret the Bible for me, well, then maybe I might come to the conclusion that RELIGIOUS leaders know what’s best for me.
In those instances, I’ve turned my life over to a religious leader, and this religious leader will LIKELY have their own POLITICAL views that they will inevitably want to push on me.
You’ll notice that we’re nearing the end of this post and I only now mentioned politics, that’s because politics or politicians are merely SALES people for collectivism.
Knowledge is power, and whether you like it or not, to date, Free Market Capitalism, brought to us via European Christians, has brought the world riches that could have only come from GOD or a higher power, whom Christians like me refer to as God.
Collectivism is misery; it will always produce misery. China now has more millionaires than the United States, but a lot of the Chinese people are miserable because their “wealth” is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. By the way freedom of speech is most important form of WEALTH.
A lot of rich people in Muslim and Atheistic-Socialism countries that have obtained a lot of wealth by are not FREE TO SPEAK in their homelands in fears they will be arrested, why? Because their GOD are the collectivists in charge.
So, although many of you imagine that we as a human species have achieved the pinnacle, the truth is that we’ve only scratched the surface of true potential. It’s the FREEDOM in Free market capitalism that allows us to appreciate the greatness of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, because without Jesus Christ, King David, a King who sent one of his best soldiers to die so he could take his wife, would have potentially been the best Western Civilization had to offer.