Individualism vs. Collectivism

New York City’s newest mayor was sworn in just a few days ago, and he is already causing skyrocketing tensions and increasing angst. Zohran Mamdani hit the ground running with his inauguration speech where he doubled down on his promise to completely radicalize our nation’s largest city and the once-great financial capital of the world. His most revealing line during that speech was when he assured viewers across the world, "We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism." Just to be clear, that’s code for, say goodbye to meritocracy and the possibility of achieving the iconic rags-to-riches American Dream… and say hello to socialism!

Some, especially our youngest voters among us, may have no idea what the terms “individualism” and “collectivism” mean. In fact, seeing as it was overwhelmingly young voters between ages 18-29 that voted for this self-proclaimed Socialist and gave him his mayorship, I’d wager it is safe to say that most of our young adults haven’t got a clue what those terms mean! Let’s break it down, because it is crucial to understand…

Britannica Dictionary defines “individualism” as the political and social philosophy that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. In other words, individualism focuses on a person’s unique strengths, and acknowledges their positive value as a person. They are the attributes that make you distinct and allow you to stand out from others. Individualism is and should be a good thing. What one person excels at, others may not. This is what makes a society successful. If everyone had exactly the same strengths, the community could not prosper. You cannot have a thousand artists and nobody to build the bridges/tunnels.

Conversely, “collectivism” is defined as a political or economic theory advocating collective control especially over production and distribution. At first blush this sounds nice. It’s warm and fuzzy to think that society as a group will band together and as a unit will jointly control society. But that is absolutely not what collectivism is.

For starters, when you look up the word “collectivism” in the thesaurus, you see words such as communism, Marxism, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and so on. These political theories are all forms of “collectivism” as it were. What exactly is wrong with collectivism, you may be wondering?

The problem with collectivism is this… who are the people who actually get to decide what is best for the collective whole? It’s not you or me. It’s not your neighbors or your clergy. No, it’s the government that is in control. They get to dictate to you what you can/must/should do, or not do. They decide what you will have to sacrifice for the betterment of society. They get to decide what you can earn, how much you can keep, how much you must give away and to whom, and when.

Who are “they,” you might ask? Think about it… who is “the government?” Well, quite frankly, they are the chosen few - the elitist politicians who somehow convinced the majority of voters to elect them, and then once in power, they surrounded themselves with their most loyal cronies by appointing them to powerful, bureaucratic positions within the government machine.

In the case of Mamdani, he garnered the smallest of majorities (50.78%) to squeak out his win. He successfully tricked those one million New Yorkers who voted for him by promising them so many free things, they just could not resist casting their ballots for him. You will recall that Mamdani vowed to give everyone a more affordable, less stressful life where they wouldn’t have to work so hard to get everything they wanted. He promised them:

• Government-run grocery stores so that he can control the price of food (which will undercut private stores’ already marginal profits whereby driving them out of business and giving the City a monopoly in food sales)

• Government protection from the “demons” that are the police, by defunding them (and largely replacing them with glorified social workers)

• Emptying prisons and freeing criminals (after all, “Violence is an artificial construct,” says Mamdani)

• Freezing the rent (so that landlords cannot raise rents, not even to keep pace with skyrocketing maintenance costs of insurance, repairs, and general inflation which will then in turn force the private owners out of business and allow the government to claim the properties)

• Abolishing private property ownership, because don’t you know it’s not fair for some people to own real estate while others don’t (which will happen at an expedited rate as rents are frozen and costs explode)

• Increasing minimum wage to $30/hour (which will force businesses to fire employees they can no longer afford to pay, and probably then fill the void with less costly AI)

• Providing FREE bus service (to the tune of upwards of $500,000,000/year)

• Providing FREE child care (though he never explained his road map on how he would pay for that)

• Seizing the means of production (meaning the government will control all industry such that the “greedy” private operators won’t be allowed to take advantage of laborers).

He sold them this euphoric wonderland with such a large, convincing, clown smile plastered on his face, they didn’t bother to see that he had his fingers crossed behind his back the whole time. The only thing that was missing from Mamdani’s platform was a pink unicorn.

I say he “tricked” his voter base because much of the freebie utopia he promised them is far beyond his ability to deliver. I did a TV interview the day after Mamdani won the NYC election in November where I explained much of the smoke screen, sleight of hand that was Mamdani’s fantasy platform. In my interview, I go into detail on how free buses are beyond a mayor’s power, as is raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, as is the confiscation of private property… and yet Mamdani promises it all. Some of it is a violation of the sacred separation-of-powers doctrine, while other parts of his plan are outright illegal, and yet he may very well try to do them, regardless. More tyrannical catch-me-if-you-can antics, where the government bulldozes your rights, and the tax payer is left holding the bag.

You can view that TV interview by clicking on the image below:

New York is teetering on the brink of the abyss. It is absolutely imperative that we bring her back before it is too late. The only way to save the State is to win the governorship this year. A new, bold, common sense governor who is a strong defender and enforcer of our Constitutional rights is the only answer.

The line is being drawn in the sand. Which side are you going to be standing on?

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