Privacy, Collectivism, and the Sovereign Individual

How Nation-States weaponize collectivism to erode anonymity, privacy, and freedom—and why resistance is growing.

This week, I came across a fascinating article exploring the clash between Bitcoin and Collectivism. The author captured it perfectly:

"Bitcoin cultivates a culture of individualism and self-sufficiency, which resists the negative effects of collectivism."

Spot on—but the same can be said about privacy, a concept that is as much a philosophical stance as it is a technical principle.

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Lurking in the shadows, for more than two centuries a particular form of collectivism has waged a silent war against privacy: that of nation-states. Such war has quietly reshaped the very foundations of our society.

What is collectivism?

According to Wikipedia, collectivism is:

“a term to indicate a moral, political, or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human being within a collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists focus on the concepts of community and society.”

In practice, it’s firstly a moral scheme (and only then, political and social) characterized by an emphasis on cohesion among people and the priority of group objectives over the individual.

Collectivism could be summarized as the morality that imposes the subordination of the individual to the group, where the group can be a race, a social class, a gender, or even a nation-state.

Under a collectivist system, actions of the individual within the group will therefore be only considered virtuous to the extent they are directed toward the good of the group to which they belong.

Collectivism and Altruism

To truly grasp the essence of collectivist morality, one must also turn to the concept of Altruism. As Wikipedia puts it:

"the attitude and behavior of those who have the (moral) quality of caring about the well-being of their fellow humans."

But let’s strip it down to its purest form—the original definition by Auguste Comte, which cuts through all pretense: "to live for others."

Now, here’s the twist: the nation-state claims to embody the collective will of its people, yet in doing so, it imposes a counterfeit version of altruism.

Citizens are subtly coerced into sacrificing their own well-being and interests under the guise of serving “others”—a nebulous collective that, in truth, is little more than the State itself. In this charade, collectivism becomes a system of moral extortion, demanding individuals surrender their lives, not for true altruism, but for the benefit of an abstract, self-serving entity: the State.

The Original Sacrifice: Anonymity

What does the individual surrender in a collectivist nation-state?

Not all sacrifices are equal, nor are they demanded of everyone in the same measure. Yet, in the intricate ritual of devotion, there lies a hierarchy of offerings that culminates, for some, in the ultimate sacrifice: life itself.

Before that final act, however, the State imposes a series of smaller, yet deeply symbolic, tributes. Chief among these is the first and most significant offering: the sacrifice of anonymity.