The collectivist illusion
agents. Doctrines, cults or leaders are not necessary to bring about purpose and meaning in our lives since such things arise naturally from the relations between all the elements of our lives. This is called "the one in the many", as opposed to "the one", belief in collectivist entities (True Believer thinking) or "the many", denial of relational properties (True Destroyer thinking).
The latter is also important to note. One has to be careful not to fall in the opposite problem, of denying relational properties and deny the existence of wholes altogether. This is another form of the fallacy of composition, but instead of using the argument as a proof that there is a higher cause or control to the wholes, it is used in this case to deny the existence of wholes altogether.
The rational position is often misconstrued as being this position. But acknowledging the nature of collectivist entities does not nullify them. Certainly there is such a thing as "culture", "society", or a "common good" in a meaningful sense. However, we must be careful not to confuse them with the collectivist entities that they represent in most people's minds.
Optimal courses of action must be determined empirically, not by collectivist rationalizations. If evidence indicates that certain modes of action are better than others, then we must trust them, and if our interests do sometimes coincide with that of collectivist "communities", we should not take this as an endorsement of such communities. At best, we should see these as the mark of our common humanity.
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