Sometimes just a simple shift of perspective can help make sense of things. In essence, we humans are really a very simple sort. This isn't a bad thing either. We may have ideological issues as soon as things get a bit to big for us individually. What works in the family may or may not work in the neighborhood, but it usually does. What works in the neighborhood may or may not work in the community, but it usually does. When we get to larger units of organization, however, that's when we find that things start breaking down, or at least tend to break sooner.
What we need to remember that in these larger contexts the "-isms" and -"ists" start showing up and they can throw us off balance quickly. Consider these three simple words: "ego", "egoism", "egoist". Or, how about these: "collective", "collectivism", "collectivist". Or ... here's one that can get lots of folks rotating: "social", "socialism", "socialist".
The first words in each of these sets causes us hardly any problem at all, but the remaining two, in each case, get weighted down with increasing negativity. Why is that? The second terms in the sets simply represent ideas, nothing more. The third terms are simply individuals who we can say subscribe to the ideas. Why are the ideas, then so negative? The first terms in the set are merely descriptors or simple facts. That part of each of we like to refer to as "I" is called an ego in psychology. A collective is merely a group of individuals with a common purpose (like a business, for example). And social is how we as humans are by nature. There's nothing evil nor nefarious nor even suspect in any of these, but as soon as we raise them to the status of notions or concepts, ones that can, it would seem, have individuals who believe in them, then things start to change.
What we need to remember, I think, is that these are, in fact, just ideas. They mean what they mean because we make them mean that. We agree, as a group, most often unconsciously, that these concepts (and all others like them) have a particular meaning. In other words, as I never tire of saying, we simply "make them up". The downside of this is that this is a hard process to steer. The upside is, though, that if we don't like the way we're headed with them, we can change direction.
There are still a lot of things up to us. We just have to recognize that they are.
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