There are few things that truly rock me to my core, shatter my brain and leave my thoughts spiraling down rabbit hole after rabbit hole for days. Even rarer is having the clarity of mind needed to put to paper the thoughts consuming my mind. When these two moments meet, I can’t help but thank Providence for such fortune.

The excerpt is from the book Stormcaller by Chris Wraight, a book from the infamously nerdy Warhammer 40,000 series. And it threw me for a loop on some deeply held beliefs that I usually hold sacred. Before I begin, let me give some background.

Individualism, the philosophical belief that stressed the moral importance of the individual, has been something close to my heart. I’ve never been fond of collectivist ideologies or practices, nor have I ever given them much thought beyond an eye-roll and a scoff.

Individualism is, undoubtedly, the bedrock of Liberty and freedom, of the ability to govern oneself, and cast aside the shackles of a separate or foreign authority. The ability to think, to act, to behave in a manner that is determined solely by one’s own beliefs and moral compass.

It then follows that collectivism, the opposite of individualism, leads to the opposite of Liberty: Tyranny. That the individual would be placed of lesser import to the group, to the community, and instead be told his tools are to be for the ‘Greater Good,’ as dictated by some doubtlessly authoritarian leader. And while this still holds true with no exceptions that I have ever heard, read or learned of, there are a few things that I had not previously considered when looking at collectivism.

Firstly, if we look back at history, we see that individualism, personal and individual freedom, was not how human beings operated for tens of thousands of years. We lived in tribes, in clans. We operated in extended families. We hunted in groups, in packs. Without collectivism, the assurance that our children may find shelter in a friendly home should we die, our species would not have survived as long as it did, or flourished as spectacularly as it has the last few hundred years. Noble sacrifice, giving one’s life for his brothers, is still one of the most honorable achievements for most men in our culture.

I can’t say for certain that it’s biologically programmed into our very being, but I’d not be surprised if scientists discovered that a tendency for individual versus collective rights was in our DNA.

What is in our DNA, however, is intelligence. We can see this across the board in IQ, with Ashkenazi Jews and Asians towards the upper end of the IQ spectrum, Africans and South Americans at the lower end, and Caucasians/Europeans in the middle. And we know that different IQ groups produce very different cultures and societies.

Collectivism, though, is a trait that we see throughout every culture and society. And, indeed, in our modern 21st century, does it still exist. We see it in China and Japan, who are exceptionally xenophobic. We see it in Africa, with warlords and banana-presidents forcing white farmers to give up their land to blacks. We see it in the muslim invasion of Europe and the us-vs-them mentality of said muslim invaders, who look down upon the Swedes and Britains and French as ‘kifars’ or infidels, who rape and murder White women because their clerics tell them that the white devils are inferior and should be exploited.

While I can appreciate the appeal of individuality, of freedom, and of liberty, I struggle with this one thought:

Is it better to die a principled man, or survive and reproduce as a beast?

Is it better to remain the knight in Shining stoic armour, and die defending one’s liberty? Or is it better to return to the old way of thinking, to return to hunting, fighting and killing with the pack, so that my genes will survive?

A year ago, I would have scoffed at such a question, choosing Liberty over life.

Now, with muslim hordes tearing apart the land of my ancestors at the behest of marxists that achieved this by dismantling my group’s legacy?

I’m not too sure.