President Obama gave himself away as a collectivist in response to Sunday's mass shooting at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.  Obama advised us all that we need to do some "soul searching" in order to reduce gun violence.

Much like Obama's now infamous "You didn't build that" speech, this comment says a great deal about the President's collectivist philosophy.  Collectivism boils down to one basic idea, that no individual is responsible for anything alone.  This is a common philosophy on the political left, but few realize how sinister and damaging a philosophy like this is to a society. 

Collectivism is damaging to society because it invokes and requires the absence of responsibility. Wade Michael Page, the man responsible for the Sikh Temple shooting was by all accounts a crazed madman with ties to neo-Nazi punk bands.  He acted alone, and should be held singularly responsible for the atrocities he committed.  The vast majority of Americans have no involvement in, and are appalled by ideas of white supremacy.  And of course, mass murder is far beyond anything that Americans would consider a rational course of action.

Not so, according to Obama's collectivist philosophy.  Soul searching is needed because no one individual can be responsible for anything, whether good or bad.  We are all responsible for what happened in Wisconsin.  This is why collectivism is sinister; it takes responsibility for terrible things away from evil people like Wade Michael Page, and gives it to honest and decent people who have nothing to do with it. 

Collectivism can go the other way too.  When the President told business owners that they "Didn't build that," he took responsibility for their achievements away from them, and gave it to people who had nothing to do with it.  Collectivism rewards failure and achievement equally, and so takes away the incentive to succeed.  This is the kind of attitude that slowly erodes the fabric of an industrious society.  It doesn't make any sense, logically or morally, to punish success and reward failure.

The strength of the American society rests on the shoulders of responsible, free citizens.  There is no collective salvation; it's a progressive fantasy with no basis in reality.  At the end of the day, individuals make their own decisions, and cannot be held responsible for the actions of those whom they have no connection to.  A moral, law-abiding American does not need to search his soul because of the actions of a lone gunman.  The only people who are not responsible for themselves are those who are not free to make their own decisions.  This means that collectivism is not compatible with human freedom, and therefore has no place in an American society, a society which is grounded in the principles of liberty and individuality.