Comment on Are we deprogramming empathy in the US?
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
USA culture has always been this way.
Comment on Are we deprogramming empathy in the US?
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
USA culture has always been this way.
Allero@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Communal action and solidarity are essential for providing benefits to individuals.
You may ask your boss to raise your pay, likely to be rejected, or you can join a union and demand a much higher pay and better working conditions.
You may do your best to add small niceties to shared spaces, or you can unite with your neighbors and make the community thrive.
You may stand alone against injustice, only to be moved when convenient. Or you can walk the streets together, making your shared concerns heard.
Neither of it is actually much ideologically tied, and it can go in any direction. But the point is, collective action is best when addressing issues many people face individually.
Building a culture of self-made individualism is a deliberate attempt to remove the levers of power granted by collective action, and to make it easier to crush dissent on the way to build an authoritarian dystopia.
That’s not to say collective action cannot be abused to make a very ugly society - fascism is one example - but that the best results are achieved when the individuals retain their own views, but are willing to cooperate over the shared issues.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
you assume it’s biconditional. it’s not.
you can ask your boss for a raise, and get fired. for a lot of people there is no option for a union. and the smart move is to apply for another job that offers you better wages.