Collectivism Makes you a Military Target
Collectivism and its terminology is one of the most harmful ideas that government and society indoctrinates us with. Collectivist terminology is an insidious subversion of our individuality. We have all been conditioned to self identify with groups that we have no direct connection to. For example if your hometown football team wins the championship, you might exclaim "We won" or "Our team did it"! However, you are not part of the team nor do the people in the town own the team. You just happen to live in the town where the team holds it's home games. This seems harmless enough but let us examine this on the political level.
Collectivism has us self identify with our government and military even if we do not work for the government or military. Society has us conditioned to identify ourselves to these groups merely by being born on a plot of land over which this government and its military claims authority. Therefore when the government sends troops to invade a country like Iraq, you might find yourself and others saying things like "We invaded Iraq" or "Our troops are at war". When someone uses these collectivist terms on you or you yourself use these terms, you should be quick to make a correction.
"We invaded Iraq"
"No. I don't know about you but I didn't invade anyone. I'm not even in the military"
"Our troops are at war"
"They are not MY troops. I didn't choose them."
Distance yourself from these statements because this kind of thinking leads you to become linked with every evil perpetrated by the government.
The root of the collectivism in American society comes from the notion that the US government and democracy is a government OF and BY the people. These people include everyone who lives legally within the boarders of America. This notion entails that each citizen IS the government. So it logically follows that citizens, since they are all the government, are responsible for the government's actions. The government, even though they don't physically fight wars, ultimately controls the overall actions of the military because the government has ultimate executive power. This means that the government is, in fact, military, just as a non-combat missions and commanding personnel are part of the military. Since the government is logically a military organization then so too , through collectivism, are the people whether they fight or not.
By this same logic, if an enemy army or terrorist group wants to retaliate against "OUR" wrongful invasion, they can, through the same collectivism, target civilians as valid military target. Accepting collectivism is tantamount to accepting culpablity for all military actions that the government makes. This makes you an enemy combatant to them. When you willfully claim the collectivist notion that "WE" invade countries and are fighting wars, then you accept the fact that "YOU" are part of, and responsible for, the military and are therefor a just military target.
You are not the government. You are not the military unless you choose to be. You are an individual. Choose to be one.