What comes first: the INDIVIDUAL or the COLLECTIVE?

Question

I come first.

Answer 1

Maybe the true Collective-individual is really what the collective was about, if one isn't free, the collective isn't free....without the minority of the individual would the collective exist?

Instead of thinking of the individual as a part of the whole, think of the individual in terms of a 'fractal' where each individual part is just a scaled down version of the whole, or what we call the 'collective'.

Answer 2

Human nature has both an individual side and a collective or universal side. It is not necessary that one predominate over the other. The more self-actualized a person becomes, the more of his unique individuality he expresses and also the more he can identify himself with the whole of mankind. The lack of self-realization makes a person alienated and isolated on one hand and a part of the faceless crowd, completely controlled by social mores, on the other. Self-realization is like a lens that brings both individuality and universality into focus at the same time.

Answer 3

For me the individual but for the government the collective.

Answer 4

Individual! because collectiveness comes from many individuals combined.

Answer 5

It depends.
An individual has to take care of certain physical, psychological and even social needs for themselves if they are going to be of any use to the society as a whole.

But if your behaviour in society is irrationally selfish and harmful to the whole, then you will not survive anyway. It is counter to your own survival as the 'collective' turns against you.
For instance, if certain laws seem restrictive or harmful to your individual self, you are free to break them, but that may result in your society throwing you in prison which may be even more injurious to you.

Sometimes to best serve the individual's needs you first have to serve society's needs.

Peace

Answer 6

Obviously the individual is crucial for short term survival of a species, but long term survival depends upon both. An imbalance in emphasis upon one or the other will cause society to revert back to an earlier stage of societal evolution.

Answer 7

I agree, what matters most is myself, the individual basis. I don't care what other people are for. No matter what, it is for self anyway. So I am for individualism all the way...

Answer 8

without the individual there could not be a collective. [assimilate or die]

Answer 9

you gotta have something, the self, inorder to give to the collective. Too much Me and the We degenerates. Too much We and the I dies.

Answer 10

what are you smoking