What sparked this comment is I was contemplating that every step towards Collectivism is a step away from personhood, from conscience, from personal agency, and ultimately away from the possibility of authentic spirituality. It is a journey in the direction of true nothingness, where the Buddhists “Void” might as easily be seen as the ultimate somethingness, merely one without defining marks.
And on this account it is certainly true that many religions have served as de facto collectivisms. Probably all of them, to some extent or other, here or there.
But a blind and dehumanizing commitment to political ideology today is no different than an all encompassing religious fanaticism in any other era.
And to my mind, the salient feature of both is not the atheism of the former, or the supposed theism of the latter, but the obtuse blindness of both. Reality works the way it works. Changing fads do nothing to alter this.