Society

Well this post originated from a discussion at another blog 

Then i gave it some more serious thought and finally got convinced that this should be a new blog post here...so here it is....

What exactly is society and what place should it have in my life...few months back this question came back at my face and stood staring at me very strong, since this time it was my near and dear ones who were part of this question...the people i loved and admired all my life...it was finally time to conquer this conquest once for all...

As i see it, Society is an idea which arose out of need to find security (of most forms, physical, emotional, financial etc). “Laws” transforms this mental (idea) into a physical structure which we then term as a society. This is true for human as well as most of the terrestrial life we see on earth.

All through history i could see that societies were made in the name of kings, race, color, nations, books (termed holy), gods (termed holy), environment (recently) and all the notions that could differentiate humans beings. To “maintain” this structure (so called society) some “laws” come into existence by “common minimum intelligence” (analogy of LCM-least common multiplier in mathematics i.e something which almost everybody will agree to). This is why these laws are usually “unsaid and unwritten”; like most (not all) societies developed with a notion that women are inferior to men in most terms, homosexuality is a sin, marriage should be the only symbol of a loyal sexual relationship and likewise, families should be raised within societal standards and values should be instilled in young generation for the same, punishments tend to decrease undesired tendencies etc.

There is a hidden aspect to the idea of society and that is about laws and people who initiate, makes and maintains them. I will term them “leaders” as they are the ones who initiate the nucleation of society. They could be religiously, politically, socially or just personally motivated. 

FIRST leader randomly decided to be the boss and using his/her superior skills (mental/physical/psychological or social), (s)he starts dictating the terms thus laying the foundations for the LAWS (i would refer readers to see the movie “blindness” to get more insight into this idea).

Leader(s) has to submit to LCM level to maintain his/her position and hence most laws as mentioned above can be found in ancient as well as modern societies in almost same raw form. 

Family being the basic unit of societal system, sons (usually!) take over as future leaders and even if he does not match his fathers and forefathers in leadership, if he can maintain LCM laid down by them, he is usually accepted (example : royal families around the world present to this date) even in modern times. Ladies have found place in royalty only when "they" could not find a suitable male.

The “mob” (which accepts leaders) behaves like a shit-scared individual who is ready to buy security at any cost (freedom, individuality etc.) and the leader who promises to provide that, is welcomed as a savior.  This is as much true for kings of ancient kingdoms as its is for modern day CEOs of big corps, presidents of nations and religious leaders. The leader promises to maintains the “status quo” in the societal structure formulated by previous generations. This structure is made and maintained by LAWS.

There is a very common confusion about laws been divided in two separate sets: Social and Legal. I do not see the difference. Legal laws are defined by constitution which is considered to be a modern product and professing progressive thoughts which would avoid conflicts and solve past problems. Social laws on the other hand are considered to be born out of nowhere just like society. Social laws or better termed as social norms are set of rules which everybody obeys to be part of the society. Social laws have local character whereas legal laws are said to have humanitarian and global character. But i fail to see any objective implementation of legal laws. The illusion of different legal and social laws is a modern phenomenon. None of societies in past and present could afford to have a complete set of “objective” laws (All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others – George Orwell in Animal Farm). In practice social and legal laws have never been different. If a society is made to feel that capital punishment is bad, it enters legal system within few years. If a society is made to feel that Aryans is a superior race, then it enters legal system over some time. Legal laws are reflections of social laws with a time delay 

As i see it, laws are reflections of our fears (We have laws for each possible fear). We say that laws are necessary to maintain peace whereas in effect we actually covertly mean that we fear the changes we might have to face if we remove these laws. 

Duplicity in notification of our fears, enable the leaders in any system (fascist, democratic, aristocratic etc) to rule by making laws to satisfy our fears and makes us feel comfortable and hence they get acceptance to their existence as the protectors.

This “fear based grouping” of humans as well as other non-human systems has enabled them to be alert and more fit for physical survival but also pulled down the majority of the population’s mental level to a common minimum and any attempt to go beyond it is/was usually perceived as threat to own existence.

How about those who dont follow laws?

Can all of them can be termed as rebels?

I would like to elaborate in detail in this regard because this is the most misjudged and loosely quoted term i have heard. 

The “true” REBELS are the misfits. I added the word “true” to signify the ones who “could not be tamed” and those who went on new path out of their own passion (which will exclude the “ambulance chasers” obviously). For example, the true rebel in single mother-ship are the women who did that when it was considered a bad notion, not the ones who “chose” to be one since its no more uncomfortable. 

By this philosophical standard, rebels have always broke LAWS for which they suffered but when fruits of these broken laws tasted good, then “mob” makes them a law instead (since they don’t know anything better to do with them other than mindlessly asking everybody to conform to the new rule which few of them understand). This illustrates why the thickness of the book called constitution expands each year. Sins of past becomes acceptable with time and turned into laws. What was unimaginable for one generation, now becomes the obvious reality for the new one. I see this pattern repeatedly in almost all societies, ancient as well as modern. 

I concluded about a year back that “convenience has been the only religion of mankind ever”. The concepts of society, religion, science, technology, family are towards one end: convenience. It can be convenience of not been alone or been able to do more than ones capacity or convenience of feeling to control others and hence satisfying own insecurities etc. I guess convenience will be the keyword which an intelligent alien life will associate us.

To conclude, i would say Laws (legal or social, to me they are same) and society represent our fears and love for convenience. It has an Darwinian advantage which enabled us to survive effectively, produce in mass numbers and rule the earth but it also has an draconian disadvantage of limiting human mental potential by bounding it with limits (since laws are limits).



Of course there is no better music and song than Pink Floyd matching here :)