Answer:
The very definitions of ‘individualism’ and ‘collectivism’ are, by themselves, ideological definitions.
Reality shows us that these two ‘ideologies’ are pragmatically practiced, with one or the other being the policy-making ideology. We have already seen the results of
collectivism, as gruesomely displayed during the 75 year life of the ‘late’ Soviet Union, and the CONTINUING forms of that totalitarian collectivism in the People’s Republic of China and North Korea.
Tiananmen Square in China was the classic confrontation conflict
of the individual dissidents against the tyrannical Chinese State.
The United States, Australia, and some of the European states tend to exhibit MORE individualism by virtue of their democratic forms of government. There is NO ‘ pure individualism’ anywhere on Earth, as all national populations have their civic codes and regulations governing individual behavior.
Philosophically AND practically speaking, it is ALWAYS the individual that will be oppressed by the governing state[collectivism] - I know of NO instance -ever -where any individual person oppressed an established government.
