Individualism Perpetuates Ableism. Why Collectivism and Community Building is the Path to Disabled Inclusion.

What is individualism?

Individualism is the idea of an individual being responsible for their own survival and destiny. This manifests as the idea that each person should be responsible for their own

-Shelter

-Income

-Intellectual property / Projects

-Care needs

And so forth.

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Why individualism persists

In capitalism land, objects, and even people in form of labor or slavery are owned. By prioritizing individual forms of ownership it is easier to justify inequality. Each person "earns" their property and thus those with less have simply done less to contribute.*

*In order to fully cement this myth many contributions like caregiving, emotional support, and community building are minimized as unimportant, not real work or "women's work"

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Problems with individualism

Of course, in reality, very little about human life is individual. Humans have been living together, working together, creating together, and caring for each other since the dawn of civilization. Individualism fails to acknowledge this. Even more, it tends to deprioritize actions that can not be easily individualized such as caring for others, protecting the environment, collective action and collaborative processes.

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How individualism perpetuates ableism

Individualism perpetuates ableism by discouraging communities from supporting each other and minimizing collaborative contributions. While this hurts everyone, disabled people are most likely to require community support and more likely to contribute in collaborative ways thus making them most affected by individualism.

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Community support

Disabled people often rely on the community far more than able-bodied people this manifests as

-Needing assistance with specific tasks

-Utilizing public transport more often

-Being less safe living alone or needing to live with others

For example, a blind person may need to ask others to help them locate a building on a regular basis, a person in a wheelchair may often need someone to grab something from a high shelf, a bedbound person may need assistance toileting and so forth.

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Collaborative contributions

Disabled people often have very specific obstacles that make them far more productive in some areas than others. A collaborative approach to creation and labor, therefore, allows disabled people to contribute far more to society.

For example: An autistic person may be very good at the logistics of a business but uncomfortable in customer service. A chronically ill person may be able to work the checkout sitting down but not able to stock shelves.

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Prioritizing collectivism

The opposite of individualism is collectivism. Seeing tasks and responsibilities as collective parts of society rather than all belong to individuals. A gifted inventor is an asset of the entire society, helping everyone to work more efficiently. If that inventor is in a wheelchair, the work of making the community accessible to them is likewise a responsibility of the entire society. Whether disabled, elderly, children, able-bodied, neurodivergent, or any other group, each person does what they are able to and is entitled to whatever the society can provide. Collaborative work like childcare, cleaning, cooking, community building, social support and so forth are all considered important contributions because they are necessary to maintain the fabric of the collective.

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Collectivist societies benefit everyone

You will notice that one difference between our highly individualist society and a collectivist society is the value placed on "women's work" or tasks traditionally done by stay-at-home mothers. This work is essential to raising the next generation and caring for the collective mental well-being of the current and past generations. Caregiving is essential to the fabric of society and a collectivist society acknowledges this fact. When this work is prioritized it of course benefits those like the elderly and the disabled who require care, but it also benefits the whole of society by providing a safety net, peace of mind, and incorporating the wisdom of those with unique life experience into the community. Additionally, caregiving can often be done reciprocally for example grandparents caring for grandchildren who in turn can serve as able-bodied helpers which helps everyone in society to both contribute and have their needs met.

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Collectivism in action

While we do still live in an ableist individualist society are ways you can contribute to collectivism in your community.*

-Contribute to community projects like gardens, libraries, and community centers

-Join mutual aid groups

-Support trade unions, co-ops, and worker democracy

-Find or start a communal living space

-Support your friends and family

-Normalize collective responsibility by not treating helping others as generous but as responsible

*Note that many projects and community-building actions above may take place in churches, if you are non-religious don't let that stop you from participating in these actions. Either work with non-judgemental churches you feel comfortable with (Quakers and Universalist Unitarians are often open to atheists) or seek out or start your own non-religious community organizations.

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#Individualism perpetuates #abilism. Promoting #collectivism #community and #mutualAid is a powerful way to further #disabilityJustice.

As a #chronicallyIll person with #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MECFS it is easy to feel like your disease is a unique burden on you and your innability to contribute to society a direct reflection on your individual value. The normal straightforward way to adress this is reminding ourselves that we are not burdens our illness is and we can't blame ourselves for failing to do the impossible. This is great, but it also ignores a larger issue: we should never have felt that our disease was uniquely ours to begin with.

Collectivism is a way of thinking about society collectively that can help

-further equity

-meet everyones needs

-solve collective problems like climate change or a pandemic

-disincentive greed and selfishness

And more

Essentially collectivism can be summed up as we all live in a society and therefore we have benefits and responsibilities intrinsic to being in society. For example, a benefit of living in a society where there is enough building to house everyone should be housing. (That this is not the case is an example of how individualism justifies wealth accumulation over meeting basic needs) A responsibility might be helping your neighbors or wearing a mask during a pandemic.

It may seem like a collectivist society in todays extreme #individual #capitalist world is impossible. But there are actually lots of concrete ways you can contribute to building collectivism in the modern world such as

-Supporting public places like gardens, libraries, transport, and parks

-Becoming part of mutual aid groups where people directly help one another

-Getting to know your neighbors and building local solidarity

-Treating helping others as a responsibility not an act of heroism

-Supporting both governmental and community based welfare programs

-Supporting worker co-ops and cooperative living spaces

-Helping out disabled friends, family and strangers (with permission please!)

In short anything that strengthens community and societal obligations towards helping one another.

#leftism #activism #praxis