What is the relationship between a spectrum of capitalism-socialism and a spectrum of individualism-empathy?
I don’t understand why individualism / empathy are put on opposite ends of a spectrum. Seems pretty clear to me that a person can believe in a high degree of individualism while having a high degree of empathy.
Can you give an example? Or elaborate?
I only ask because it seems pretty clear to me that Individualism, which by definition involves the desire to be self-reliant and independent, shunning the outside influence of others, is incompatible with empathy, which by definition relies and depends on others in such a way that influences you. This seems pretty clear-cut.
The only thing I can think of is that, as an individualist, you might assume that others too want to be cut off and not have to live a life of empathy, so you empathically wish individualism on them too. Or that you can still feel bad for a load of suffering people, just so long as their plight doesn’t actually interfere with your own life and independence. But is that really empathy or just an exercise in self-pity?
Of course it depends on what the OP means by each term. But assuming by 'individualism' he means some sort of political belief, and by 'empathy' he means the faculty of understanding other people's emotions, it just seems obvious to me that a person can be the first while possessing the latter. It's a non-sequitor to assert otherwise, it would be like trying to set up a continuum between being a racist on one hand, and being (literally) color-blind on the other.
Sure, a strident no-safety-net libertarian (if that's what's meant here by individualist) might believe that the empathy he feels is mostly something that needs to be tempered by reason or ignored (like a fear of the dark) but that doesn't mean they don't posses it. Or it could be that they are sooooo skeptical of Statism that even possessing a great deal of empathy, they believe that collectivism (if indeed that's the opposite of individualism as the OP sees it) is a cure that is always worse than the disease.
The spectrum presumably doesn’t take into account the latent capability to practice empathy, but rather the actual practice of it. Individualism doesn’t need it - in fact it sees it as somewhat of a problem.
Of course, you are right to bring degrees into it, that the most fervent individualists go to extremes such as Libertarianism. A capitalist doesn’t necessarily go that far, for Capitalism doesn’t cease to exist with more or less State regulation on the side. He merely tolerates more or less centralised intervention in the name of producing what he considers “the best” result. But then arguably this is State-Capitalism, with the existence of both the State and Capitalism - the capitalist without the State is essentially a Libertarian without need or want for empathy. Just pure Individualism. Perhaps one who identifies as a capitalist ought to be more exact and identify himself as a State-Capitalist instead, if he is to desire any degree of State intervention. This preserves the scale of Capitalism to… something. I would not call it Socialism, but perhaps you have come across me making this argument before. I would call it Statism.
Just because a State is involved in an economy doesn’t make it Socialist.
So we have a scale between (pure) Capitalism and (pure) Statism. And in between you have State-Capitalism. Sound fair? I most certainly think the scale of (pure) individualism and (pure)… something else (that is more compatible with practicing empathy) exists.
Statism requires trust in one’s leaders. Capitalism doesn’t need (or want) this trust.
To rename this thread, I suggest “Capitalism-Statism spectrum”, and to reformulate the premise I suggest countering this with a “leadership distrust-trust spectrum”.
To factor empathy into this, I suggest a “Capitalism-Cooperativism spectrum”. Cooperativism doesn’t need a State, it depends on a certain level of empathy, unlike Capitalism.
What I meant by the capitalism socialism spectrum was more or less economic intervention of a free market economy all the way to a planned economy.
What I meant by the Individualism empathy spectrum is a physiological state of mind focusing more on self interests or more on the interests of others or even society in general.
I concede that neither of these spectra are inclusive to all economic strategies or physiological state of minds. However, I believe the majority of both that exist on earth fall somewhere in the middle.
In the past discussions I have had regarding capitalism have came down to how to motivate people. My idea is that if people have a greater capacity to empathize a more planned economy is appropriate and will appeal to them.
If I’m able to draw a link between future human evolution and increased capacity to empathize, I think the result will be the Marxist view that capitalism is an anachronism that human society will develop out of… someday.
Eat my idea to pieces. HAHA