Just because much of modern philosophy is flawed, doesn't mean the the effort to produce effective models of our reality is a waste of time. Trial and error.
Part of the problem with focus on the individual, is that in our instinctively monist culture, the degree to which it spirals down various self indulgent rabbit holes, rather that seeing that nodes and networks are two sides of the reality. Organisms and ecosystems.
Societies, as communal super organisms, are made of individuals, just as individuals are cells functioning collectively. Think what happens to the body when the cells get out of control, or in conflict with each other, as is so often the reality for lots of people. From cancers and autoimmune diseases, to sepsis.
Neo-liberal capitalism essentially functions on the same infinite growth model, as bacteria. The problem is when they reach the edge of the petri dish, or resources.
The advantage of multicellular organisms is being able to sense and navigate their surroundings. Feedback, rather than cycles of growth and collapse.
Government, as the executive and regulatory function, amounts to the nervous system, while money and banking are synonymous with blood and the circulation system.
The particular affliction the West and its influence over the rest of the world, is that with public government and private banking, the banks have the upper hand, so the only real job the flunkies allowed in office have, is running up the debt the banks need to grow metastatically.
The effect is this societal economic Ebola virus, where profit trumps all other references, ideals, qualities, so doors start falling off new airplanes, but the shareholders make more money to spend on their self indugences.
The fact is that collective responsibility, not just rights, are the basis of a healthy society. When everything and everyone both works together and functions effectively within its environment. Rights then become part of the payout.
When rights become ordained and responsibility is optional, everyone grabs their slice and runs.
Our bodies are as much ecosystems, as we are organisms. We are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, circular, reciprocal, feedback generated reality. So we tend to spiral down these various rabbit holes, searching for that ultimate model, map, god, ideal, without realizing they become as much or more a function and creation of our efforts, than any inherent quality. Like the grain of sand at the center of the pearl might be the focus of the oyster, but the pearl is a creation of its efforts. Feedback.
That's why we have creeds, codes, heroes, narratives, as gravitational center of societies, but it's the society that gives it weight.
Without that sense of greater focus, individuals wander off and it goes Tower of Babel. Sometimes that is necessary, when the old has become corrupted, like the center of an old tree might be rotted out, even if it's still putting out new leaves and growing branches. They just become more weight to topple it.
Having grown up around more horses and cattle, than people, I find the natural flow to be a better source of perspective, than this generational game of Chinese whispers, we call culture and its philosophical justifications.
