The utilitarian is not, as you might expect, necessarily on the side of the collectivists. Nor is she necessarily an individualist. Our splendid idea is for herders of all tribes to put aside their respective ideologies and instead figure out what actually works best—what actually maximizes happiness—on the new pastures. And what works best may turn out to be more individualistic or more collectivist. Figuring out what works best requires putting our prejudices aside and instead gathering and evaluating evidence about how various policies and practices fare in the real world.
