Individualism and Collectivism

Hello, everyone. It’s James. Glad to write this log and share my thought with you again on “The call of the wild”. I’m going to share other interesting points coming up to my mind while reading this novel. And this time my sharing focuses mostly on some concepts or theories, which some of you might consider it boring; but I’ll do my best to write them in simple words and convey them by some points you can relate to. Hope you can read them at very ease.

To briefly recap and introduce “The call of the wild”, this novel was a story regarding how Buck ultimately got back to the unfamiliar and completely primitive would, the specific essential how he achieved that could probably only by detaching from his group and surviving on its own. However, actually in most of plots, Buck was usually obedience to his master or those who gave him a task; therefore, Thornton’s rescue was basically seen as the most important transition in this story, which was also a start for Buck’s mentality of individualism. Despite the fact Buck had still been dedicated himself to Thornton later on, but his longing for mysterious wildlife ended up dominating him. He became the whole individualist and only listened to his own voice.

Individualism, one of the thought-provoking traits of “the call of the wild”, also is the theme of this log. But some of you might not fully familiar with that, so before talking about individualism, I want to bring up the other concept “Collectivism”, which is more familiar one in most Asian countries.

In most of Asian countries, the collectivism was rooted in every kid’s mind, especially in school education. We always taught to be considerate for group, taking group as priority. And it’s quite interesting that in many times some student (including me) would sacrifice my opportunity to get extra points just for the sake of groups or other classmates’ right.  Despite how active I was for my personal points; teacher would still tell me that I should give this chance to those who hadn’t answer. As a result, when I was kid, (more specific, when I was in school), I was brainwashed that I was not supposed to deprive others’ right on the basis of my personal interests.

This is very interesting question, why children being active in class or in any competition would be seen as not right or not acceptable? why we should yield our chance to others? And why this confusing phenomenon especially happened in Taiwan’s school? Compared to western countries, take American education for example, the naming way of their class is by teacher’s name instead of by number order such as “class 8 grade 6”. Moreover, based on what I saw from a video talking about difference of education, it surprised me that there are few relay race in America school, which is the most interesting activity in Taiwan’s school. This is probably why when we talk about individualism, people often associate with western countries, and also why individualists are mostly western people.

They, as individualist, usually take their interests as priority; personal autonomy is the central value for them. However, as far as I know, although there have been lots of positive example of successful individualists; there seem to be more disadvantages in individualists. For instance, those who conducting individualism would mostly lead to selfishness, shallow consumerism, and even the breakdown of society.  To name an extreme example, in the last plots of this novel, Buck completely showed what “individualism” was, he no longer trusted people and followed them, he started to being mad and violent. He took people’s life without any exception in the snowfield; all of these were just for surviving in the wild. This also occurred to me that whether individualism is immoral or whether it doesn’t conform to my existing logic or concept to some extent.

Individualism is like the double-edged sword, the more growth of independence and autonomy, the more decline in interdependence and solidarity. It is not only applied to individual, but also education, society, and even a country. As individual, we should ponder more when some concepts contradict to ours, understanding more on the reason behind them instead of criticizing. In my opinion, individualism and collectivism must have something to do with a country’s religion, civilization, and history, they are not merely simple principles. If we just follow without understanding, we probably bring about negative effects.

Last but not least, stay moderate. Overly inclining to one of them will make you unable to see the virtue of the other one. Furthermore, these two principles are not absolutely on the contrary, they can be conducted simultaneously. In story, Buck actually was either individualist and collectivist, he killed other’s life for feeding himself up but meanwhile he also lived with Thornton and followed his commands. In our life, there must be some situations that we can not only earn our personal interests, but also win glories for our group. So, next time, if you work as a group, based on your own grades and group’s glory, try to contribute to your group . Last, I’m curious about what kind of person you are, an individualist or a collectivist? What do you think to these two terms?
Share any of your thoughts below (if you want) !!!