4.2
The Basis of SOCIAL & CULTURAL
Systems, Structures & Constructs
This article examines the formation and development of
social systems and structures.
" What
experience and history teach is this—that people and governments have
never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have
drawn from it."........... Hegel
4.2.1 THE BASIS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURES
"
Society is now one polish'd horde,When the words "social system or
construct" or structure is used here it invariably means
here a post-tribal and post-shamanic society having organised
physical structures like
towns and cities as the epicentres of their development.
"For man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection."........Francis Bacon
To understand the workings of a society or
cultural system and their resultant structures or
constructs, it is essential first of all to comprehend
the basic workings of the mind of man
and this is comprehensively covered in the preceding articles of
'Personal Validity'. For
society is, in a way, a collective reflection of the minds that make up that
society. Thus as
the basic function of the mind is to seek a state of
maximised satisfaction with as much
safety and security as possible, so does a society also reflect
this process, but in a more
amplified manner. Social and cultural structures are built upon this
desire to have a stable
and secure environment and this is
something that no member of any society opposes,
unless someone sees beyond the social patterns of
behavior and where they are leading
the society to, and thus perceives a defect or danger that will
lead to future problems,
and then attempts to convey or warn the other members of it.
How the others respond will depend entirely
upon the communicating power of the
individual, the fluidity of the value system of the society as well as the
quality of the social
communication technology ( the artistic as well as the rational
usage of its language).
" With the loss of
tradition, we have lost the thread which safely guided us through
the vast realms of the past, but this thread was also the chain fettering each
successive generation to a pre-determined aspect of the past "....Hannah Arendt
All social systems are founded on the basis
of conformity and agreement to established
norms to be followed by the individuals, and in return the individual gets
the much
needed security of life, without which a social system
cannot function. And so, conformity
is the central pillar
of social structures. But mere conformity to a social order itself devours
the creativity of individuals, and so
a rigid and strictly codified structure is bound to decay
and degenerate, ultimately leading to its corruption, that then leads
to a degenerate or
destructive path, and which case it becomes, is dependent upon its esteemed
values ( or
lack of ). At the same time, a flexible structure is vulnerable to be hijacked
by greedy and
ambitious persons under the garb of progress and
development or under the pretext
of danger to security, which easily gets the support of the majority since
ordinary people
are prone to be misled.
While social structures should ideally provide for the development and promotion
of able,
creative and moral people, it should also have safeguards
against negatively creative, or
destructive individuals. This is far easier said than
done for it needs something that is
always in short supply - moral power, which is so easily devoured by
its opposing force -
greed. Now greed is also necessary
as a driving motivation for accomplishing many
constructive things for most people, but it always comes down to where the line is
drawn,
if at all, and redrawn, if at all, and if no line is
drawn and adhered to then there is no limit
to which greed can go to and eventually destroy
everything in its path. It must also be
kept in mind that greed is one of the cornerstones of social structures, since people gang
up ( "agreed" can be looked on as "a
greed" here for most societies ) on the basis of
perceived benefits in terms of
"evolution" to every member ( a sophisticated word
for greed ).
"From top to
bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without knowing where
to find ultimate foothold. Nothing can calm it, since its goal is far beyond
all it can attain.".............Emile Durkheim
4.2.2 INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY
"In social
institutions, the whole is always less than the sum of its parts.
There will never be a state as good as its people, or a church worthy of
its congregation, or a university equal to its faculty and students."
............................Edward Abbey
The most important relationship in a social
setup, therefore, is that between the individual
and the social system or construct, that is, to what
extent does the social system as
an institution support individual creativity and
empowerment to further enhance the
quality and efficiency of the institutions of the system.
Therefore, the individual entity
versus the social institutions as the counter entity is the crucial
relationship that enhances
and also inhibits each other's development. And without a balanced
system that is led by
creative individuals, a social structure cannot sustain and
once it starts slipping, there is
no knowing where it ends up.
"The
whole history of civilization is screwn with creeds and institutions which
were invaluable at first and deadly afterwards."..........Walter Bagehot
Anyway, social structures build up and degenerate because these eventually devour
more
of the moral power of human beings than regenerate it, and it is
this aspect alone that
determines how far a society goes before it self destructs.
The key therefore is how well
a society can promote creative people, and
effectively handles, without suppression,
people with a destructive bent, that is, how its
system utilises productively the power of
persons with a destructive disposition. ( for example, sport rather than war
as a basis for
physical competitiveness )
The ideal alternative is that social
structures should have individual creativity, not greed, as
the foundation for ganging up or hanging together, so
that it is these creative individuals
that then build up on a base where the basic dignity of all
life is assured, and responsibility
towards the environment is the highest good, that is,
actions that contribute towards
giving back more to the environment than is taken
from it, the most righteous of all
actions. Unless these values are inculcated in the
educational system of a society, no
lasting progress is possible.
It may be argued that all
systems and structures are bound to ultimately decay and
degenerate, and this is true, but just holding a great
value for this truth cannot be the
basis for undertaking anything meaningful in the realm of
life, for to undertake anything
meaningful is to first having to believe in it. While the basis of long
term Reality is constant
change of waxing and waning of social and cultural
structures, it is in the short term and
immediate aspect of Reality that provides for meaningful
thought, action and creativity or
else one tends to become a recluse, hermit or monk.
4.2.3 THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY
"Organization can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgment."...L. Brandeis
Meaningfulness always comes from individuals,
not systems or institutions. The purpose of
Institutions is to provide for the efficient availability of
resources for the development of
exceptional individuals, not for promoting masses of monotonous robots that just serve to
maintain status quo which then stifles creative expression. This holds
true for all kinds of
institutions, whether these are religious or educational or social or
political or scientific or
technological. So it is not only that individuals are to be taught to be
responsible towards
society and environment but society too
has to be collectively responsible for the
development of each of its individuals, whether they are
ordinary or exceptional.
Whereas, ordinary individuals will invariably fit
well by themselves into established
social roles and vocations, it is the exceptional individuals
that eventually provide for the
dynamic inputs to a social order, and so the existing norms
are crucial in terms of how
well they have provided room for or handling exceptional individuals,
because exceptional
individuals can be creative or destructive, there being a thin dividing line
between the two.
In general, any system or institution is only as good as insofar it
manages to utilize the
destructive potential of its individuals in a constructive manner, without
suppressing the
potential of creative individuals.
4.2.4 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
"The hallmark of
our age is the tension between aspirations and
sluggish institutions"....John Gardner
The most important institution in a society is
no doubt the family and the founding deeply
ingrained beliefs of any individual are those that are acquired
from those people that are
closest. Thus the parents are the real teachers, whose values are
so easily mimicked by
the offsprings. Sadly, the more advanced a
society, technologically, the lesser the role and
interaction of the parents, thus the main learning
then in technological societies is that
which is acquired in school, the
second most important social institution. Here not only
are most of the social norms and
mannerisms taught and programmed, but also the role
of peers plays a crucial part. A lot of what we like and
dislike comes from the kind of
company one is exposed to ( or chooses ) and here choices made
play a critical role for
the rest of one's life, because it is at
this stage that the pressure to make choices in
terms of carrier, vocation, goals, etc, become prominent and
these are the decisions
that become almost irreversible.
This is also the time that one discovers what are the fields that one has
a predilection or
talent for. Once again we see that this factor
is so easily overlooked by the teachers and
parents alike and for most part all
kids are treated to the same kind of useless
programming with superfluous emphasis upon
science and mathematics that for most
people turn out to be a waste of time, resources and even worse, takes them
away from
what they may actually have a talent for. Education as it is today,
for most part ends up
suppressing individual uniqueness, inspiration, creativity,
free expression, self-development,
natural instincts and talents ; and instead promotes conformity, rote
learning, machine like
behavior and thinking, subservience to and worship of data and fixed
knowledge whose
validity is never to be questioned.
Education should be oriented towards
bringing out the Will and uniqueness of each and
every individual, rather than turning everyone into duplicate
copies of a presumed ideal
human being ( A super - scientist ? ). The very concept of
education implies that no fixed
standards, no fixed and predetermined goals can be imposed by a society upon the
members of that society. The goal of education should therefore
be to enhance and
encourage the creative
potential of every being and also to expose or at least to make
aware of the destructive potential in every one of
us. Once the educational institutions
fail to do this, all other so called higher institutions
will also succumb to the resulting
malaise.
All other social institutions
more or less reflect, as well as are, offshoots of the learning
institutions, and like them end up eventually functioning only to
maintain their status quo,
irrespective of where it leads to and the long term
costs to the environment. The world
then is nobody's baby to be cared for, and a race takes place
to somehow quit the planet,
to establish a colony on the moon, or mars
maybe, so that a few can live happily ever
after. Or if all goes well, and technology becomes more
and more powerful, then just
colonise the entire universe. Such are the beliefs
that prevail in this age of reason, that
absurdities abound.
4.2.5 THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
"Because intellectual capital measurement is not confined to business but is likelyThe social institutions should be
founded on an intellectual platform which first
of all must have its own foundations purged of
personal and cultural egotism.
When the very foundations of a philosophy or
understanding has been based
upon cleverly and deceptively hidden falsehoods and inherently bad
principles,
any subsequently developed structures of understanding over and above
these
bad premises will only lead to further and further
deception of entire societies
or cultures of people. Those falsehoods,
over time, become invisible to the
society and culture, but still
actively operate, hidden by the developing
philosophies, religion, science and technology. A structure
that is rotten from
within its deepest core. Like a termite infested
wooden house. And one day
the structure cannot sustain any longer its own weight...
"
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking4.2.6 The development of Cultures
The role that culture plays in our
behavior is not so immediately apparent but has even
more long term and deep rooted connections than society. Since human
life developed
as distinct cultures in different parts of the world, reality
was also differently understood,
and constructs about reality therefore also varied greatly in different
cultures. Initially
however, all constructs had certain similarities, particularly as
far as the mythical beliefs
are concerned. Most cultures start as tribal societies that are led by
the shaman of the
tribe, whereby the shaman fulfills
the role of healer, advisor, leader and spiritual
interpreter, a link of that tribe with the Spirit or Intent
of the world. A shaman is one
who seeks, interprets and acts upon the commands of the Spirit, and
understands that
the Spirit, being not a physical manifestation, cannot and should not be
institutionalised.
Therefore shamanic societies do not go for an organised lifestyle of town and
city type of
structured society, but remains
basically as a tribal culture that lives in harmony with
nature without formal and structured institutions. A tribal
society however, has myths,
stories and legends about their origins and the forces of nature,
but these in a shamanic
society are neither taken as hard and fast truths nor
are they worshiped as such in an
institutionalised and ritualistic manner as
seen in organised societies where religion
becomes almost purely a matter of ritual.
The weakening of the power of the
shaman means that a process of institutonalisation,
hierarchical and structured social system
begins to take place. This weakening of the
shaman's power in societies takes
place primarily when the shaman is unable to control
and balance the moral acts of the members of the
society of which the shaman is a
leader. The shaman may be challenged by a member and a member
of lesser caliber
takes over control of the tribe as also one of the reasons. In
any case, a tribe becomes
post shamanic when their shaman's power and authority is depleted and the
shaman is
unable to train another shaman or retain the power to
reincarnate back after death into
the tribe. From this arises a hierarchical
social structure where the priest takes the
role of the shaman, and having more of a formal and
ritualistic role and less of a
connection with the Spirit, does wield authority, but
without the power and spirit of a
shaman. The myths become more like absolute truths to
be worshiped and upheld. The
establishment of a social hierarchy that is perpetuated
by the vested interest of certain
sections of society signals the beginning of a cycle of immorality
from which a society may
never be able to recover from. Rituals are initiated
in temples and institutions, which
instead of promoting unique individuals, become instruments in the hands
of privileged
people who will use any method and means to perpetuate their
unchallenged status and
privileges and to ensure their retention in their offsprings. A stratification of
society into
classes and castes takes place in which human beings are classified according to
their
birth ( family background ), skin colour, physical features, racial background etc.
Another notable feature of a developing post-shamanic culture is the domination of
the man over the woman in all aspects of society and social institutions, even in the
trivial matters of the family.
4.2.7 POST SHAMANIC CULTURES
"General conceptions
of a spiritual nature are indispensable constituents of a psychic
life. We can point them out among all people whose level of consciousness makes
them in some degrees articulate. Their relative absense or their denial by a civilized
people is therefore to be regarded as a sign of degeneration."......Jung
That factor of human
greed that the shaman has kept in balance and control
now
becomes more prominent. The tribe instead of maintaining its
balance and relationship
with nature shows tendencies to expand
and grow into larger numbers occupying
greater areas of land. Initially, if wars were
waged between tribes due to perceived
threats, misconduct or moral reasons, now the
wars get waged in order to gain
resources, land and then eventually to
dominate and turn into slaves the people of
other tribes. The exploitation of man and nature, by man, is the first
step towards the
development of organization and structure of society
into a hierarchy in which human
inequality is the foundation stone. This structure
then develops institutions in order to
control society. A system of rational knowledge (which was
earlier intuitive) develops in
which certain doctrines, beliefs and ordered knowledge
is taught and inducted into
others to follow. In many
cultures like Greek, Roman and Hindu cultures,
myths,
concepts about and forces of nature become personified as gods, deities
and demons.
A bifurcation into myths and
systematic knowledge takes place. Religion and science
take root as institutions which were earlier one and the same and
non- institutionalised.
The function of these is to perpetuate, expand or consolidate the order
so created. The
second function is to dominate other societies, even if by
force, to create empires and
kingdoms. Such a consolidation of societies
having some common mythos or similar
deeply engrained beliefs can be called a
culture. Every culture develops its own
rationality: a systematic understanding of the world and its processes,
the various forces
of nature etc. Since the rational process is a linear
understanding of the world, based
upon cause - effect relationships ( or the
generalistions of perceived causes), every
culture develops a somewhat
different understanding and conceptualisation of reality :
the rationality of that culture.
4.2.8 TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURES
Initially, all cause-effect generalisations are
based upon presumed causes whose sources
are not clear and so the simplest
rationalistions are based upon myths and stories.
However, with the development of the
physical sciences, the older myths, seemingly
useless, are discarded by the culture, and eventually
the physical sciences overtake and
suppresses any other understanding
and also other cultures that persist with their mythos.
The clarity of many "discoveries" of
cause-effect relationships makes the dominance of
the physical sciences so complete that it
becomes an unquestioned presumption that
the material reality is all there is to the whole and
essence of reality. No other viewpoint
is admitted as valid, since no one can prove to
the satisfaction of all scientists that the
physical is not all of reality.
Anyone who uses words like Spirit, Shaman,
etc is ridiculed as primitive, superstitious and
irrational. The nature of the Spirit is such that someone
who has none of it can have no
conception of its existence, let alone its meaning and function as the
essence of reality.
It should be clearly understood that
the foundations of cultures having organized social
structures are laid when it becomes
post-shamanic and loses its connecting link with the
Spirit. There may come spurts when a
person in such a society does momentarily
establish this link and as a result point out the
social faults and shortcomings that are
leading the culture and societies downhill
morally. But even if such a person is able to
convince a large section of the society about its faults, any
changes usually turn out to be
cosmetic or superficial, and eventually
incorporated into existing institutions and people
more or less revert back to their old ways,
with a few more blocks added to the old
structures. In any case, developments, advances in rational
based knowledge: science
and its
application in technology creates an illusion that the
culture and its societies are
evolving into a higher state of existence than the primitive man,
since an organised
society offers many benefits, comforts and security than a
tribal life. Now it would be an
actual evolution if the culture has been able to
retain its Spirit along with developments in
physical terms or at least develop a moral order in
which reckless exploitation of humans
and nature does not take place and
the destructive tendencies have a natural non-
destructive outlet. But this can only happen in cultures in which
there is a high value for
people who are capable of providing a direction and creative inputs into
society by which
limits (rules) are defined to which
extent its members are allowed to go. The
fundamentals of these limits are those in which the basic dignity
of all life in its natural
balance is cared for and a
system of dispensing effective justice is in place.
4.2.9 THE RELIGION - MYSTICISM CULTURES
"Compassion is not a sloppy, sentimental feeling for people who are underprivilegedThe real trouble lies
in the development of certain fixed doctrines, or sets of beliefs
that
are rigidly followed (and induce others to follow) by the key people or religious
leaders
or priests, only to perpetuate their own status without any risk
to themselves. This leads
to their lack of power to stop widespread
wrong doings by the members of their society,
and so these wrong doings eventually tend to get justified. Rather than dispensing
justice,
this justification process becomes
the foundation of the society and eventually, the
culture's philosophy. Theories and sophisticated explanations
are sought to cover up the
heinous acts of past and present, as if by providing a satisfactory
excuse, all wrongs can
be obliterated from their conscience. This only makes these faults get
buried deeper and
deeper into the collective psyche of the culture, and
so more easily passed on to every
generation until the day the price has to be collectively paid.
When the most obvious of
wrongs are glossed over or justified under
some pretext or excuse or put on the back
burner, a society is only digging itself into a hole that will
only get deeper and deeper,
and eventually there is no getting out of this hole.
"Wrongdoing can only be
avoided if those who are not wronged feel the same
indignation at it as those who are."....Solon (Greek statesman)
This happens when a fundamental wrong doing, instead of being dealt with by
dispensing
justice, instead is covered up with justifications, then the
resultant attitudes and values of
the society tends to repeat and replicate the same wrong
doings and justifications on a
broader and broader scale. In a manner of speaking, the unchecked
wrong doings
spreads a wide net of an infection of wrong
attitudes that progresses to a sub-consciously
operating cultural mind set,
wherein sophisticated philosophies are conjured up only to
divert and camouflage a growing immorality that is
plainly obvious to a person outside of
all cultural baggage. This unwillingness to examine and acknowledge
that a huge mistake
was made way back in time by a culture's forefathers
is a symptom of a culture's
lost moral power.
"Society...prepares
crimes; criminals are only the instruments necessary
for executing them."................ Jacques Quételet
Unfortunately, even this
is not realised and the unchecked
wrong doings grow into a
gigantic structure of lies and deception that traps the entire
culture within it. This growing
immorality manifests and camouflages itself behind
two divergent kind of amoral ways
- science and mysticism.
Two kinds of divergent cultural
philosophies and ways of living emerge. In the first
type, the highest value is for the
"evolution" of physical sciences and its application -
technology. In the other, the highest value is for
"personal evolution" - or "mysticism " in
which the end all of existence is to escape the existential
domain itself ( to break the cycle
of life and death, so to speak). In both
the resultant societies one common thing emerges
- a growing social immorality and reckless exploitation of
nature and man, to which the
societies are oblivious ( first type ) or uncaring ( second type ).
One type holds technological evolution to be the ultimate
human accomplishment and the
other type holds personal evolution or enlightenment
- a state of supreme bliss as the>
ultimate in human accomplishment, which is presumed to be a unification with God
or
whatever. One is ignorant and therefore careless about the
imminent destruction of the
world, the other cares even less because for them the world is an
illusion, since they are
already in God's domain, and therefore
destruction also an illusion, and so although
inevitable but unimportant. One extreme is
drowning in the arrogance of scientific
knowledge, oblivious of its destructive nature,
and the other extreme dwells in the
apathetic mysticism in which the end is an escape or denial of life itself ! ( the so
called
breaking the cycle of life, death and rebirth)
"
We must reject a privatization of religion which results in its reduction to
None of them takes responsibility for the deterioration of the
social conditions of which
they are a product of and party to.
"You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public"....Scott Adams
Proceed to next article :
4.3 Religions : The Rise and Fall of Monotheism
Or
Section base page:
1. Metaphysics, What is it for ?