Capitalism, Systems Theory and Sustainability

When I was living in Australia, I was involved with a social change group called Reworking Tomorrow/Australia Connects, and we were discussing community and social systems other than the current ones in place, that might bring a more healthy human and natural environment into being... 

There was a a lot systems theory debating going on, as well as discussion about sustainable community, human affairs/decision making management models... the concept of the empty centre, where there is no leader or group of leaders, but where the community is involved in all decision making and concensus decisions arise organically from respectful discussion and listening and more discussion...

I personally am interested in the idea of 'all for one and one for all' because under systems theory, the needs of the individual are made subordinate to the needs of the group... something that is accepted in many eastern cultures and is the complete opposite of the individualism that is so widespread in the west...

But I can't agree that the needs of the group/society should take pre-eminance over the needs of the individual, as speaking of an organic model, if there is dysfunction/dis-ease in a component of the group, there is dysfunction in the whole, it being the web of life and we all being connected etc... I think there needs to be some sort of balance between the individual and society...

Its interesting that the 'West' has moved so far from community and extended family/clan as a way of living... and we have moved so far that even the nuclear family no longer exists... I see the US and its political and social systems as being a very clear example of that and the subsequent consequences... this society is one of the most stridently individualistic; there is no community and no coherent social framework - its a loose grouping of fractured cells really...

There's a huge cost to the whole in that reality... we prosper or we fail mostly by our own efforts... when we prosper, we, rather than the group, profit by the results... when we fail, it costs the group an enormous amount in social and financial terms... and as the group (body) has a vested interest in the wellbeing of its members (cells), one would think the group would see the wisdom in supporting the members to achieve their greatest potential... but in this society, where profit is the ruling ideology, that very self-evident truism, is (purposely) overlooked ... because if capitalism - the ultimate form of individualism - took that thinking on board, it would have no justification to exist as a political and monetary system...

Its kinda weird and doesnt make any sense... capitalism is shooting itself in the foot because this form cannot continue indefinitely... because its based on the exploitation of resources, ultimately its a closed entropic system which will collapse in on itself...