Individualism, collectivism, and . . .

In the New York Times, David Brooks has this op-ed about China, America, and competing world-views.  A bit:

The world can be divided in many ways — rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian — but one of the most striking is the divide between the societies with an individualist mentality and the ones with a collectivist mentality.

This is a divide that goes deeper than economics into the way people perceive the world. If you show an American an image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in the tank and what it is doing. If you ask a Chinese person to describe a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish swim.

These sorts of experiments have been done over and over again, and the results reveal the same underlying pattern. Americans usually see individuals; Chinese and other Asians see contexts.

It seems to me that a "Catholic" way of seeing the world might complicate, or at least diversify, Brooks's taxonomy.  A "Catholic" view, one might think, is "individualist", in the sense that it emphasizes, and has as its focus, the worth of each and every human person.  At the same time, a "Catholic" view -- while not "collectivist" (or statist) -- also sees the person in "context" and appreciates the role of societies (again, not merely "the state", but societies).