It's pretty clear which of those better achieves the goals of the nation, but the question is who sets the goals of the nation. The individualistic Western way

It's pretty clear which of those better achieves the goals of the nation, but the question is who sets the goals of the nation. The individualistic Western way makes incremental progress on a lot of goals, some of which will be good and some of which will be bad. The totalitarian way makes enormous progress on a single goal (or small packet of goals), which is amazing to the extent that they're good and devastating to the extent that they're bad. (Unfortunately, both ways lead to the concentration of power in a few hands—either the hands of those with the most wealth to advance their individual agenda, or the hands of those with the power to make their individual agenda the collective agenda.)