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buybuydandavis comments on George Orwell's Prelude on Politics Is The Mind Killer - Less Wrong
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Every so often I get downvoted for something I consider completely noncontroversial, but with no comments to say what the objections are.
The general term for the kind of ideology Orwell is talking about is collectivism, and the epistemological error is methodological collectivism. Clearly nationalism is just not the right word, because he is not just talking about nations. Collectivism more accurately captures what he is talking about. If anyone has a more precise and accurate term, feel free to share.
I didn't downvote you, but my guess is that your comment came off as an attempt to push Randianism, or perhaps some other closely related ideology. I'm pretty sure that wasn't your intention, but the problem is that many such people are highly active on the internet, and "collectivism" happens to be a word that they use incessantly and which is not very common otherwise.
So they were engaging in exactly the kind of nationalism Orwell describes. How fitting.
...so would you say "collectivism" is a good term for describing them?
I've more often seen collectivism as an opposite to individualism: that is, a desire or tendency to work together in groups or to focus on the welfare of a group more than that of individuals in it, or in some cases a focus on preventing harm over maximizing freedom. Tribalism is better because it doesn't have any other meaning. Also, the tendency Orwell is talking about probably evolved during conflicts among hunter-gatherer tribes, but I have no citation for that.