Wong on the Value of Community in Individualistic, Democratic Societies

Not only is there fruit to be gained from considering communal-ground arguments for individual rights (so that we might see effective ways to secure rights for individuals in collectivist societies), but also rights-centered/individualist moralities should recognize the importance of community for democracy.

In particular, the democratic values of self-governance and social justice (i.e. “justice for all”) require community. Unchecked individualism threatens to erode the ability of individuals to exercise their rights of self-governance and equal access to justice.

Wong writes in his section 3.7, “The Interdependence of Rights and Community” (p. 92, my emphasis):

“Consider Tocqueville’s definition of individualism as a “calm and considered feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends,” such that “with this little society formed to his taste he gladly leaves the greater society to look after itself.” Such people, Tocqueville observed, form “the habit of thinking of themselves in isolation and imagine that their whole destiny is in their hands.” They come to “forget their ancestors” and also their descendants, as well as isolating themselves from their contemporaries. “Each man is forever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence, ed. J. Mayer [New York: Doubleday, 1969), 506, 508).

“Tocqueville’s prescience concerning our isolation from our contemporaries and our descendants is reflected in the national unwillingness to address the problem of a potentially permanent class of the severely disadvantaged beset by poverty, crime, and drugs. It is not just political participation at stake here but more basically a question of moral agency and integrity. … [R]ights-centered moralities [must] recognize the indispensability of community for the realization of democratic values of self-governance and social justice. Rights and community are interdependent.”

Sexual Egalitarianism in Collectivistic Societies

In section 3.6 of Natural Moralities, “Community-Centered Moralities and the Problem of Hierarchy”, Wong provides examples to argue for the possibility of a communal ground for egalitarianism. Especially, he argues that sexism is not an inevitable piece of a collectivistic/communitarian society. Individualism and an ethics of individual autonomy is not the only way to argue for egalitarianism.

“[O]ne could forcefully argue from within the tradition that the subordination of women unnecessarily restricts the ways in which women can make a contribution to the common moral ends of the community and deprives them of the dignity that would come from making such a contribution.” (90)

Wong refers to the retelling of the traditional Chinese ballad of a young woman taking her aged father’s place when he is called to the army, in the story “White Tigers” by Maxine Hong Kingston. This story juxtaposes the traditional Chinese values of filial piety (that is, respect for parents) and communal identity with a critique of sexism in traditional Chinese society, demanding that women be given fully equal opportunity to realize these traditional communitarian values. 

Wong also gives the example of the community of Ammouliani in Greece. In this traditional society, “the primary fulfillment of the individual is found in the family and tied to the socially desirable goals of marriage, childbearing, and the building of a future for one’s children” (91). Women are valued in this society for their financial and managerial skill, and take an equal (or in some cases, greater) role with their husbands in the economic independence of their household. “And yet this unusual status for women is not achieved through recognition of rights that women have against the family or their husbands. Rather, it is through recognition of the ability of women to contribute to the enterprise that is the primary fulfillment of both men and women” (91).