The United States of America owes its very existence as a nation to the idea that individual rights trump collective rights!
The argument for independence was founded on the conviction that the most basic unit of society, the one with God-given rights, is the individual. The rights of the individual are UNALIENABLE, whereas the rights of the governing body are DERIVED from the consent of the individuals governed.
Notice in this excerpt from the Declaration of Independence how the individual is held in high regard, and the collective is suspect.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (INDIVIDUALS) are created equal, that they (INDIVIDUALS) are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments (COLLECTIVE) are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, (INDIVIDUALS) — That whenever any Form of Government (COLLECTIVE) becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People (INDIVIDUALS) to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their (INDIVIDUALS') Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when along train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their (INDIVIDUALS') right, it is their (INDIVIDUALS') duty, to throw off such Government (COLLECTIVE), and to provide new Guards for their (INDIVIDUALS') future security.
"Well then," the skeptic may ask, "why 'institute new Government' at all? What hope is there that any new government should be good, whereas the old government was bad?" That depends on the answer to another question:
What's the purpose for government in the first place?
Clearly for the Founders of our country, government was expressly for the purpose of effecting the Safety and Happiness of the individuals governed, (who, remember, were given their rights directly by God) and to guard the individuals' future security. The Government, therefore, MUST NOT abuse them, usurp (!) them, or reduce them under its absolute Despotism.
So, to the degree that any government serves its function, namely to protect and to serve the rights of the individuals governed - Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, Safety and Happiness, future security - to that degree it is then good government. But when any government becomes destructive of these ends and abuses, usurps and reduces the individuals governed under absolute Despotism, it is then bad government and MUST BE THROWN OFF.
Or so says The Declaration of Independence, if you put any stock in such things.
