“On the other hand, America is rooted in individualism – the idea that respect for individuals and their rights should take precedence over the collective.”
New York City’s brand new Mayor Zohran Mamdani outlined his administration’s goals in what became a viral news clip, declaring: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism”. Warmth? My mind immediately recalled reading about the frozen fields of Ukraine during the Holodomor, the terrible famine-genocide during the 1930’s that killed millions and came as a direct result of the communist Soviet Union’s policy of forced collectivization of agriculture.
Collectivism isn’t “warm”, it’s a cold killer that has claimed tens of millions of lives. On the other hand, capitalist societies rooted in individualism have sparked innovations that literally warmed millions of homes, saved lives, and lifted people out of poverty.
Just what is “collectivism”? Collectivism is the idea that the needs of the “collective” – such as a community, nation, or state – should take priority over individual interests. Political ideologies like communism and modern democratic socialism adapt collectivist ideas to the function of government. On the other hand, America is rooted in individualism – the idea that respect for individuals and their rights should take precedence over the collective.
The great Ayn Rand explained it well: “Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group . . . 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 political corollary of collectivism.”
Let’s review collectivism’s record on “warmth”. I mentioned the Ukrainian Holodomor, so we’ll start there. The Holodomor was a man-made famine engineered by Joseph Stalin’s Soviet regime as part of forced collectivization policies, which involved seizing grain, livestock, and farms from Ukrainian peasants to support the Communist Party’s government. The outcome was catastrophic: around 4 million estimated deaths from starvation in Ukraine alone. Historical accounts describe bodies frozen in the snow, villages depopulated, and families resorting to desperate measures for warmth and survival during the harsh winter of 1932-33.
The Holodomor’s collectivist famine-genocide wasn’t an anomaly. There have been 80-100 million deaths under communist regimes worldwide. Mao’s Great Leap Forward in China alone claimed 20-45 million through forced collectivization and famine. Pol Pot’s forced collectivization in Cambodia, up to 2 million.
For a visual representation of the warmth of collectivist vs individualist policies, one only need to look at satellite imagery of North and South Korea at night. South Korea, a capitalist haven, is lit up and glowing with bustling modern cities and economic activity, while communist North Korea appears dark, cold, and isolated.
Individualist societies were busy revolutionizing indoor heating and improving living conditions for millions around the same time as the Holodomor. Private American companies in the 1920’s and 30’s created more practical automatic thermostats, efficient oil and gas furnaces, and better blower systems. Market competition and mass production drove down costs and made these heating advancements affordable for millions, giving middle and lower classes access to the same stable heating as the wealthy. These American heating innovations were not state-funded or planned, instead they emerged from private profit motives of individuals.
Contrast this with the mess of collectivist heating in the USSR, where heat levels were set by bureaucrats. Everyone got the same heat level, no matter how different their building was. The system was so inefficient that the city of Moscow apparently used about the same natural gas per year as all of France!
The historical record is clear: collectivist policies, when implemented seriously, lead to cold totalitarian horror. Rugged individualism isn’t frigid, it affirms life.
This column originally appeared in Lee Newspapers.
