I can get into some fairly intense debates with a few friends of mine that subscribe to the utilitarian ethic, since I am an ardent individualist. So I've been thinking about how to best show the fundamental flaw of utilitarianism and why individualism is the view I subscribe to.
It all comes down to the fact that utilitarianism is slavery. When you use a utilitarian philosophy, you work on creating the greatest good for the greatest number, which means that whoever is doing the deciding of what the greatest good is and who the greatest number are is in essence playing god by controlling what everyone else can do and everyone that they control is their slave. This person doesn't need to be a big man either; it can be a small group or a majority of the people as well.
For example, let's say we have a group of people that want to go to war and another group of people that don't want to. The reason those that want to go to war are for it is to get the other nation's resources and to expand. Right now, the ones that want to go to war are in the majority, and since everyone that is part of the group needs to go to war (as in be enlisted in the military and see combat), then those in the minority are a slave to the opinion of the majority, and must go along with it, even if they object to it. Under individualism, the majority would not be able to force the minority to go to war. They would have to go to war by themselves and could not enslave the minority for their aims.
This is just one example, but anytime you use the utilitarian ethic, you are saying that the individual is a slave of the group's opinion, whether the group is a nation, a company, or a group of peers exerting pressure. This is exactly why the United States is a republic and not a democracy. Democracy is tyranny of the majority, while a republic protects the Rights of the minority.
Since slavery was abolished in the United States with the Thirteenth Amendment, why are people in the United States still trying to enslave individuals by using the utilitarian ethic? Only individualism provides true freedom.
