Fourth in a series
Still in a quest of definitions to define your philosophy? I am, so follow me.
What is society? And how do you define it?
Up to now, I pretty much have focused on the basic element of human existence, as I see it, and that has been the individual, but that is not the whole story. Human existence also has been defined by the associations that individuals make with other human beings. For lack of a better term, I call that “society”.
Society, in its smallest form, is the nuclear family most of us grew up with. It takes on a multiple of other forms as you expand the size of the group.
Societies come in all sorts of forms that can be defined essentially by the group’s behavior. You can have paternalistic societies, where the dominant leaders are normally male and take on the characteristics of fathers; maternalistic societies where the dominant leaders are female and take on the characteristics of mothers. You can have authoritarian societies where the leader makes all the decisions of any import or anarchical societies where no one is in charge. You can have societies where the individual is responsible for everything concerning himself up to where the whole society is involved in every decision that is made concerning the individual. You can societies with “herd” mentalities, where it basically is just follow along with the crowd, or “pack” mentalities, where the individuals band together to work together but under the leadership of one.
There are democratic societies where the decisions are the entire group’s responsibility. There are republics, where the group is so large that subsets of it select individuals to represent them in a central decision-making group. There are aristocratic societies where the leadership and the key roles are passed from parent to child. There are feudal societies where usually aristocratic style leaders follow a hierarchy based on professions of loyalty. And occasionally, you run across meritocracies, where the leading roles fall upon those who demonstrate the best capabilities in their fields. You have tribal societies, where the needs of the tribe or clan rank higher than those of the individual. You have communal societies where everybody shares everything … sort of kinda but that never really seems to work out that way over time.
It is obvious that the human race has developed a society for just about any style of living that you can think of … and then some. Some work, some don’t. Why? Well, I have my theories, but they are just my opinions and you know about those … still, I am going to give you my reason. Those that work take human nature and work with it. Those that don’t work try to change or alter human nature and that is a recipe for failure.
So, that takes us back to the individual and why does the individual do anything. Why do people do anything? Because they perceive it is in their own best interest. In other words, it meets a need that they have, whether it is food, shelter, protection or acceptance (The four basics as I see them). In exchange for helping the individual meet those needs, societies make certain demands on an individual and that usually is conformity to a set of norms concerning behavior.
Social scientists will tell you this is called the social contract and I think it is a pretty good way to describe it. Society says to the individual: You want to participate in our little group, here are the rules. Abide by them and you are an accepted member; don’t and you a deviant and will be ousted. That is the contract and you sign on the dotted line by your consent to live by those rules. You can argue with that definition, but I am not sure how you would replace it.
Now, the problem arises because not all people agree on what type of society they want to live in, not by a long shot. And the bigger the population, the bigger problem gets because the more people you have, the more differences you have. Each individual (there I go harking back to the individual) has their own view of how things should be. Granted, the language he learns to think in and the customs and traditions she grows up with play a major role in how a person views what society is and should be, but they still will have their own feelings and thoughts about the system. Because we do think, we are different. (OK, Pappy used to tell me that most people don’t think, they merely rearrange their prejudices, but that doesn’t necessarily apply here).
However, then the question arises do we act more like a herd or a pack? Remember, a herd rarely has a “leader” per se and generally just flows along, drifting here and there, trying to make sure those basic needs are met. This does not exclude the fact that some herds seem to follow leaders, but those leaders are not choosing, nor are they necessarily chosen, to lead. A pack, normally, is smaller than a herd and, usually, travels with a purpose while following an accepted leader who either chooses to lead or has been chosen to lead. People, unfortunately, tend to display both tendencies which makes it hard to figure out what they are going to do in any given situation. Are we a herd today or are we going to be a pack? Of course, sometimes we prefer just to wander about on our own. Aren’t we a contrary species?
Still, society at all its levels plays a major role not only in the choices we make but also in the choices that we have available. Those choices usually are the result of centuries of traditions and customs so deeply embedded that sometimes we don’t even recognize that they are there and shaping what we are doing. This is especially true when you apply the language to our thought patterns and the value systems that we are exposed to as we develop from infants to adulthood. They form the framework and basis for all else that comes after – with subtle influences from genetic pre-dispositions thrown in to complicate matters.
Those instinctive behaviors – basically stuff handed down to us by thousands of years of specie-specific survival – include our basic reactions to certain stuff that no matter how hard we try, we can control to some extent, but we can’t seem to shake. The most obvious of these is that humans are sexual animals. It is how we reproduce and propagating the species is a very basic thing for just about any creature (otherwise they go extinct). Sex is, after food, just about the most important thing in an adult human’s existence. Sometimes we do it just for the pleasure, but it is pleasurable to encourage reproduction.
(Another aside: Yes, I believe in the evolution of the human species. I do not find that incompatible at all with believing in God. In fact, it reinforces my belief in a divine being. I also think that the Bible can be interpreted many ways, and in our hubris we tend to put it only in terms our own relative comprehension, without considering that, assuming that it is inspired by the Creator in one way or another, God may be traveling to a different drummer and playing on a different time scale that we are. However, I am not going to digress further on that topic. Just remember, time is relative.)
How a society is structured, coupled with its cultural (value-based) influences, together are the key elements in how we humans are. To that end, I would recommend a book that I recently read “American Nations” by Colin Woodard. It does a very readable and interesting job of explaining how the various cultures of the North American continent influence its politics and social behaviors. It is not a perfect explanation, but it does a pretty good job of synthesizing the interaction of the various factors that make up our world.
I hope all this gives you food for thought.
Nuff said, for this round. Stay tuned for another chapter.
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