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What are the weaknesses of individualism?

Individualism Cons Little to no social support networks. Issues with emotional compliance/resilience. Lower option to seek advice or help from other sources or people. Weak or poor mental health. No sacrificing or group work supported. Meaningless life. Time misused or wasted. Too much freedom. More items... •

johnshalom.com - Individualism vs. Collectivism: Pros and Cons for Modern Humans
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Individualism vs Collectivism Views is an article meant to help us choose a balance between the two current world views with their pros and cons. Look, individualism is no longer a Western worldview. Just as the world is now viewed as a global village, each and every concept is also global at the moment.

What is individualism?

Individualism is “the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant.” ~ Oxford Languages(1). Individualism is a belief system that focuses on the individual person’s development and well-being, rather than on the community or collective development. Well, we can ask a lot of questions. This YouTube video explains these two views much better. Please watch and then read below.

For example, is Brazil collectivist or individualist? What are those collectivist vs individualistic countries? Can we be able to find information related to collectivism vs individualism by country? What’s the difference between the collectivist vs individualistic cultures?

Your Self-Discovery Guide

We can go on and on. But let’s talk about development again. This development may be in materials, or in immaterial things, such as personal spiritual growth, mental, or any other abstract development. Individualism has its own history, traditions, doctrines, teachings, and practices. It’s an international idea now, not a localized thing as it was. Naturally, individualism existed in smaller amounts all over the world for many centuries past. The West (Europe & America) has been known to be the home of the individualistic culture, though this was never the case in the past. Humans used to live as communities with community priorities until sometimes later in human history when individual interests preceded that of the community.

Your Self-Improvement Guide

Capitalism has been and is still part of the individualism or individualistic worldview and culture. The idea of individual and intellectual property rights is a branch of individualism worldview and thoughts and ideologies. For example, self-discovery is an individualist idea, and so does self-improvement. Self-esteem, self-education, and self-development are all individualistic ideas. Things like working hard for oneself, planning, goal setting, and execution of personal plans are all part of the individualism worldview and its practices. For example, in the West, it has been and is still a culture for each individual to have both short-term and long-term goals, but this is not the case in Africa.

Individualism Pros

Here are a few pros of having an individualistic view of life.

Personal freedom

Personal achievements

Personal awards for certain accomplishments

Learning new things

Life enjoyment

Personal focus

Influencing others

Individualism is also known as idiocentrism. People with much of these personal ideologies are mostly the ones vulnerable to negative emotions, social issues, hopelessness, depression, and even thinking of committing suicide.

Your Career-Discovery Guide

Individualism Cons

Here are a few cons of having an individualistic view of life.

Little to no social support networks

Issues with emotional compliance/resilience

Lower option to seek advice or help from other sources or people

Weak or poor mental health

No sacrificing or group work supported

Meaningless life

Time misused or wasted

Too much freedom

Selfishness/self-centredness

In Africa, individualism is seen as selfishness at best. This might be the same in Asian countries even at the time of this writing. But the West is different. For example, in a US-based university, each student may be required to do her own academic work without any assistance from her friend who might know better than she does. In the West, helping a friend to academically succeed would possibly be a violation of academic rules and regulations. But, in Africa that would be seen as being selfish, if one can’t help a friend even academically. In Africa, it isn’t cheating to leak an answer to a student friend, but in the West, the opposite is true.

Do you see the differences?

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Now let’s move on.

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What is collectivism?

Collectivism is “the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.” ~ Oxford Languages (2). Collectivism is a belief system that focuses on collective views, traditions, doctrines, teachings, and practices. It is the opposite of the individualism system discussed above. Having a collectivistic view of life means one doesn’t measure the personal side of things, such as personal identity, success, fame, etc. Rather, he/she focuses much on the betterment of a group, mostly a community’s success. Just as we have said earlier, collectivism is seen as selflessness in Africa, while individualism is considered selfishness in Africa, and also in Asia, until recently when individualism ideologies spread, spilling over to Africa and other parts of the world, mostly silently and unknowingly. Today, individualism ideologies are mixed with collectivist ideologies everywhere in the world. Even in Africa, especially within the developed(ing) countries, individualism is the culture of the day, and those who practice much are African youngsters. This means even those who believe in individualism may not know they do believe in it, simply because they think this is life. They don’t know anything about the collectivist views, or they may see those views as primitive at best, or as evil, at worst.

Collectivism pros

We may just say that the collectivism pros are the individualism cons, but let’s see a few of these pros below.

Selflessness and willingness to help others in a group

The accomplishment of collective goals

Supporting other members of a group

Peacefulness in a group

Stability of a whole group

Love and unity in a group

These are just a few pros and I believe there are more.

Collectivism cons

Lack of personal pursuits and goals

No personal ideologies

Everyone faces the same troubles

Fear of new changes

Encourages laziness

Others may still argue that these cons may also be influenced by individualism or individualistic ideologies and culture. Each set of cons in each of these opposite worldviews is viewed differently by each group. For those who live collective lives, everything in this world looks perfect, and so do those who live in the individualistic world.

Now, where are you?

Where are you leaning?

I want to let you know where I belong by nature. It’s both nature and nurture for us to be either individualistic or collectivistic, and we can’t deny these facts. Look, we are who we are because of what we have inherited from our biological parents or relatives (nature/biological), and of course from how we were brought up (nurture/environmental). The environment is a huge factor in making us who we are, individually, as well as collectively. I even think, speak, write and act the way I do here because of both factors: nature and nurture. And because I was born here in Africa, I can’t be that individualistic 100%. As I have already mentioned above, I am both an individualistic as well as a collectivistic person at the same time, but I think I lean more toward being collectivistic, just because of nature’s and nurture’s effects on my personal life.

Oh, listen, reading and speaking in English only brings individualistic views into one’s own life. For us who have been reading and speaking in English for years, there is no doubt we are somehow individualistic in some measure. Even the very books linked in this article are meant to help you in your personal and professional lives; that’s individualism in action, isn’t it?

Look, I admire self-discovery and self-improvement, which is why in the first place, I wrote these posts and articles for people like you to read. I am a mixture of both individualism and collectivist ideologies, which is why I would like to advise you to be in the middle, not extremely leaning to the other end, just because of the above-given pros and cons for each of these world views.

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Now, what does the Bible teach? The Bible is more collectivistic than you might think. The Bible encourages polygamy more than you think. The Bible encourages teamwork and group success and fame more than individual praise and selfishness.

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But selflessness is a task that is not so easy for everyone to achieve. Why? This is because it requires work, hard work. I think we all need a balance.

A balance is needed

At the end of this article, Individualism vs Collectivism, we have to conclude that we need some balance between the two world views, individually. But this also might have been an individualism concept as well. Humans are naturally selfish, but we humans have also learned that there is what is called good and bad. We also have the ability to do or not do certain things, if we only decide to or not to. We can’t change our natures, but we can surely discover and improve them at will. Look, we need to love teamwork, and then work together whenever needed, and we can successfully do this without denying or neglecting our own personal visions and pursuits. We have to work for personal goals without ignoring group goals as well. Too much individualism leads to depression and even suicide at the end of it all. Then too much collectivism leads to the death of individual identity and self-worth. We all deserve to be acknowledged for our great achievements, but that doesn’t mean we have to be selfish in the process to even live alone and die alone. I have heard that in the West, children have to leave their parents as soon as they are 18. In Africa in general, and in South Sudan in particular, that’s lawlessness and selfishness at best. But I have to understand that living in urban cities is not so easy. So this is the condition leading to people getting married to just one wife in a lifetime. This is the reason I may not understand youngsters who studied somewhere in East Africa, or in the Western world, simply because they fully understand best the individualistic side of thinking and living, but I have something little from both worlds. Indeed, there is a gap when it comes to individualism vs collectivism world views. I hope Individualism vs Collectivism as an article has been helpful to you, personally. If so, please leave a comment below.

God bless you!

Shalom!

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johnshalom.com - Individualism vs. Collectivism: Pros and Cons for Modern Humans
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