The problem is not so much individualism, or collectivism, but our inability to see the dichotomy as a whole. Both the node and the network, the tree and the forest.

Our brains need a frame, so we can’t see both the object and its context as two sides of a larger process and feedback loop.

It’s like the faces and vase optical illusion. Sometimes we see the faces and sometimes we see the vase, but we can’t see them both at the same time.

Liberalism and conservatism are similar, as a process of organic expansion and civil, cultural consolidation. Rather than seeing the larger cycle, we tend to take one side, or the other.