What is the starting point?
For understanding life
The West begins from individualism
And thinks the individual
Is the supreme value and starting point
This leads to all kinds of private benefits and
Outrageous inequality
Communisn begins from the group, the collective
And individuals must live and shape their lives within this larger reality
This has led to all kinds of oppression and harm to human beings
Catholic moral teaching begins from a completely different understanding
Human beings are ‘persons in society’
A person is by definition a related individual
Not an isolated individual
And that makes all the difference
And society is made up of related persons
The West’s championing of individualism in its liberal democracies has made many people excessively rich while many more fall by the wayside
Individualism is as mistaken as is collectivism
Individual does not describe me at all
Human person with all its connotations of child, son, daughter, relative describes me exactly in my human reality.
Brian Fahy
19 March 2022
Erris Poetry 