Mica Pettibone October 20th

, 2009 Focus Question

PERSPECTIVES ON IDEOLOGY Mica Pettibone

In the first source we see a perspective showing how the changing times have brought

different ideologies to the Inuit people. In the past the Inuit were very much a collectivist

society, sharing what they had in order to provide for each other. In this way they were

following the collectivist belief of doing things for the good of the whole. There was also

self preservation in the concept of collectivism, when the groups of Inuit were small there

was need to stay close together and preserve others in order to protect someone else’s skill

set. A good hunter might be bad at making clothes or shelter. Now that there are more

people and easier access to resources the Inuit have grown apart and embraced the concepts

of contemporary liberalism, and individualism. We see the Inuit no longer sharing among

each other as the idea of ‘the right to prosper’ takes root. Greed is a mover of people and is

a large contributes to why we wish to succeed on our own and take glory and prosperity for

ourselves and not share with those who have not ‘earned it’.

The second source depicts a clear example of individualism and, within that, classical

liberalism. The quote ‘In my day bears had to work for their honey’ ties to the self interest

and competition seen in classical liberalism. We see the man showcasing the personified

attitude of self interest and competition, in the unwillingness to share with anyone,

Mica Pettibone October 20th

, 2009 Focus Question

especially a potential competitor. We also see that the man is unwilling to help the ‘poor’

and believes that they are in that position because of their own failings and should have to

work their way out of it. Classical liberalism focuses very strongly on this every man for

himself mentality. Once again we see the idea of the ‘right’ to prosper and the idea that an

individual should be as rich or poor as his skills would allow him to be.

The ideas behind classical and contemporary liberalism are the same and there are even

connections to be made between individualism and collectivism. Firstly we see that Classical

and Contemporary Liberalism move to separate people into individuals by allowing for the

success or demise of a person based on their own abilities. The principles behind

individualism are tied to the concept of treatment and success based on ones skill and

ability to succeed. We see the differences between the collectivist mentality and the

individualist one in the first source where the Inuit people have stopped sharing what they

had and looking after one another, where some people are poor and others have more but

won’t share it, because there is now a concept of private property that was much stronger

than before.

In recent times we see that classical liberalism has been replaced by a more sensible version

of ‘contemporary liberalism’ which is still yet to be perfected but coming closer towards

Mica Pettibone October 20th

, 2009 Focus Question

balancing the interests of the individual to the interests of the whole. In order to keep

ourselves from falling into a cycle of success, recession, and rebellion we have instituted

welfare capitalism which is an idea based off of a collectivist policy however it is also

individualist. The idea of making sure not to have people becoming ‘too’ poor is one that

has been put in place as a safety net. A safety net that’s purpose is to prevent capitalism

from repeating itself. Contemporary liberalism is a mixture of individualist and some

collectivist policies in order to find a balance. In this way collectivism and the

contemporary liberalism behind individualist policy can be interconnected.