Society

In my post about freedom, I had speculated that freedom by itself does not ensure the continuance of civilization. There is a piece which is missing, that which fits into freedom to form a base on which civilization can rest.

Before this a little bit of analogy.

First one the phenomena of resonance, in short this happens when the frequency of the external force is in phase with the natural frequency of the medium result is formation of waves with large amplitudes. For most of the structures too much of resonance is a bad thing. So is for most of the dynamic systems, hence dampeners, which absorb this excessive energy and the result is a more benign state of vibrations.

Other example, for a nuclear fission (essentially disintegration) of an atom requires bombardment by neutrons, since every disintegration of an atom results in expulsion of excess neutrons which will initiate fission in more atoms resulting in what is known as chain reaction, this is clearly undesirable (unless the idea is of a nuclear bomb), so special materials called inhibitors are placed in the fissile material to stabilize the rate of nuclear fission.

Point of these examples is that evolution of life is an indefinite point somewhere between chaos and stability. And if the aim of civilization is evolution then it must be located at this point.

Freedom by itself is not capable of reaching the balance, indeed freedom acting alone will tend towards chaos. The balance for freedom is provided by notion of responsibility. Now responsibility is a value. In other words it is the value system which provides the correcting mechanism. And this value system is enforced by concept of society.

That is why social interaction is an essential condition if civilization has to progress. And this is why I am skeptical of Individualist, in his zeal to promote individual, he deliberately belittles society. Any ideology which presumes society as redundant or evil construct is bound to fail after it has finished its quota of coolness.

Society in reality is a complicated organism, its purpose is moderation. Therefore it is a useful instrument. Society is good when it engenders respect for elders and fellow humans. It is bad when it promotes segregation. It is good when it teaches a man to respect justice and equality. It is bad when it promote discrimination and greed.

In short society is what its underlying value systems are.

If I may continue with my silly comparative, society is Rajas, so is freedom. However I will prioritize freedom over society. In a way modern man is wary of social contract, the reason long history of oppression perpetrated by society on dissents.

Modern philosophers were not very agreeable to society acting as an influence, therefore individualistic streak of the modern age. If west unravels it will be because it let social structures wither away

Here I make a distinction between Society and State. Although state is founded upon society , yet they have different existence and different functional values.