Collectivist thinking

Donna Miles wants ‘‘a departure from the selfish approach, which prioritises the individual, to an approach that considers the collective interest as paramount’’ (Time for National Party to embrace kindness, Nov 29).

The Western emphasis on the individual doesn’t promote selfishness, it emphasises individual responsibility for other, equally significant individuals. In fact, it is only individuals who are capable of the ‘‘altruism and self-sacrifice’’ that Miles correctly admires. And the West does value groups, because they are groups of individual human beings.

Collectivist thinking inverts this: it sees the collective as the only thing of value. Individual altruism is arrogance and personal sacrifice is imposed.

Unsatisfactory and dissident individuals beware!

Gavan O’Farrell, Waterloo