Tom Kawczynski - Off the Record

One of the recurring challenges that I face in my efforts to organize politically is that many of the people with whom I associate are proud individualists.  I find this makes for many interesting personalities, and I respect and embrace that the idea of liberty encourages us to each seek our own path.  I enjoy meeting people who have their own reasons for doing things, but sometimes, it makes it harder to work together.

One of the big questions that we face, though we rarely phrase it as clearly as this is whether or not we should be more concerned with individual rights or collective needs.  We don't exist in either extreme in most cases, but I've learned that one reason why people on the left tend to be able to pull people together better is because they naturally accept the idea of banding together for a cause, for a mutual benefit that is not always congruent with each person involved.

I'm not a collectivist.  I understand the mentality that you need to be aware of everyone, and what is happening to them, but I cannot get past the idea that it is up to people take responsibility for themselves as much as possible.  Most of the people I know feel the same way.  The problem is that this leads to people thinking that if we just let people do their own things, situations get resolved.  It isn't like that.

Sometimes, you need organization and teamwork.  Sometimes, you need to work collectively to achieve goals.  I spend hours each day working at this question of how we get people working on the same page, people who are happy to do their own thing, realizing that unless we use our abilities in at least some common pursuits, we can work as hard or as much as we want, and we will find laws come into being that simply force policies we don't like because we were too busy being ourselves.