8 Nov 2022 1:53 am
It’s funny that in culture, there was a time when novels and film actually glorified collectivism! Grapes of wrath (all Steinbeck, really) little house on the prairie, most westerns, religious movies, all had scenes of dozens or hundreds of people in a huge field assembling something.Cannonpointer » 08 Nov 2022, 2:35 am » wrote: ↑ Individualism is one of the greatest advantages of the west. It requires no defense - we hold it as a primary value. We lionize it in film, write novels whose heroes manifest it, celebrate it in every aspect of popular art. Hell, we all but fetishize it - and I have never spoken against it, as I am very much a part of the main stream in my own celebration of individualism.
I find it quite telling, though, that when I defend collectivism, everyone and his cat feels the need to rush to individualism's rescue. I would not have to launch a defense of collectivism, but for the sick-*** Randian infection that has sent folks like the fellows I called-out off balance and whirling like dervishes.
those scenes have been absent from American cinema since the 1980s. Every single Hollywood production now is hyper focused on the lone hero taking on the world. Rarely does more than 3 or 4 people even occupy the shot in any modern film reel, unless it’s a scene of utter chaos like a city under attack.
It’s like someone looked at all the films of the 40s and 50s and 60s and they said “this is WAY too much collectivism. We have to totally cut this out of future films, people cannot be shown this level of human cooperation”