[michaelscott]

I would say it's more congruent with evolution, which is to say it aligns with the idea that mutations or other advantages can put an organism far ahead of its competitors and improves the species through genetic preservation (or historical preservation, in the case of societies).

I don't buy that it's out-and-out better than a collectivist system at a society level (even though I consider myself very much an individualist). As usual with these sorts of polarising perspectives, the ideal is probably somewhere in the middle and a purely individualist society will never be able to persist long term.

[plokiju]

It’s funny, I thought this comment was going to go the opposite way. The first examples I thought of in evolution were things like ant colonies, where individuals sacrifice themselves for the good of the collective gene pool, and are extremely successful as a species because of it.

But yeah, there are more individualistic species that are also successful. I guess it depends on the ecological niche, and both strategies can find success depending on the environment they are in?