Human has to learn what to do, then learn how to do, and then only, do it. This is true for all activities, whether of living one’s life, or those connected with leading life in general. Human society was born before humans could learn to make one, and our journey of trial and error continues. And wisdom is not letting us have a free ride in this, by forcing us to stop, divert, or even retract, many a time.
Human is a form of life, for which, nothing occurs without learning. From the most fundamental activities of living its life, for everything, human has to learn what to do, and then learn how to do it. The first question that was faced by the earliest ones would have been, how to live? It looks like, they have, rather than taking the trouble for a cumbersome learning process, taken a convenient path of copying the living style of all other forms of life. And human societies came into existence.
Human race has been struggling hard, ever since. Whether as city states, nations, empires, or commonwealths, the primary aim of organizing ourselves was to keep our societies alive and kicking. We haven’t succeeded fully, even now.
A good society will produce good people, and good people invariably make a good way of organizing themselves. If so, why to have an elaborate structure of carrots and sticks to discipline people, when we only need to make the populace, a good one. (If it had been so, there would not be a natural need to trigger fresh institutions like society as a part of human life and living. Also, as I propose in my hub, since another major issue facing the early human also needed to be settled, we just chose a path that came to us first, for both the purposes.)
What is a good society?
I think a few questions will help me find a good answer. What is a good piece of furniture? What is it, when it is of a dress, or a vehicle? One can easily see that in all these cases, what we consider good is the one that meets the intended purpose satisfactorily. Where, the word purpose implies both of meeting the ends and of overcoming hindrances.
In this condition, a good society is one that is healthy. Since, a healthy one is that one, which not only meets its ends, but also is capable of taking steps to correct itself, as and when it becomes a necessity.
What would make a society healthy? Or, what makes anything healthy? What is the secret of a good and stable condition? If we are to look at all living and nonliving things around us with this question in mind, certain universal propositions or other commonalities will come to light.
Hurtful events as well as destroying and destabilizing forces are present everywhere, and at all times. And the resulting deviation lead to unacceptable states, or undesirable living circumstances, at least for the duration such forces. The ability to retain or revert to the original state, in respect of nonliving things, and a brisk return to the normal, in respect of others, come into play, ensuring stability and normalcy. Which in fact points to an important attribute, say gravity, in the case of nonliving things, and another one that molds the character or traits, in case of things with life. Thus, gravity makes it possible to continue its existence optimally, as far as the nonliving objects go, and constancy of character or traits do the same, in case of others.
Look at the human. Here also, hurtful and destabilizing forces are rampant, causing at all times, a tendency to deviate from the normal. But, unlike all other forms of life, whenever such forces stop to exist, things do not go back to normal. Instead, we humans need to manipulate, sometimes even falsify, all the residual forces to maintain a degree of normalcy. Where we succeed, we call this activity by an endearing name – progress. Where we do not, sometimes, that too where the deviation from the normal is not all that great, we just acknowledge it by a maxim – human society is a violent one. All other instances would be contributing to whatever we identify as the pertinent issue facing the human race, like clash of civilizations.
Now, the cascading effect of the residual forces and the resulting deviation, continue to multiply, leading to the disintegration of societies. We effectively keep the disintegration under wraps by having a dynamic approach to our social edifice. Where, we entertain a bouquet of expedients and choose the one that serves us the best, like monarchy, oligarchy, or democracy. Rather than the disintegration of a society, we see this as a failure of the current system of governance, say an unsuitable monarchy. We then hop between various to systems of governance, every time choosing the one that fires our imagination the best, and telling ourselves that all is well now. To aid us in swallowing such opinions and conclusions without leaving an iota of doubt, we are nurturing an armory of expedients like sociology, theology, and many streams of philosophy. Over the years, all of which have turned, rather, effectively hidden, the real destructive elements or traits in our midst as something that makes the human, a complex object far different from all other forms of life.
Now comes the interesting part. Had we been acknowledging this imbroglio, being the most discerning of all creation, by now, we would have been ready with an answer. Instead, totally disregarding the need to dwell into the reasons, we are gladly embracing this crazy outlook as something that makes the human race unique. Result: even by chance, no eye will ever fall on this. If this continues, not only our present, but also the future of our future will head to darkness.
Why did it happen this way? And why does it continue to be so? In fact what we celebrate as human uniqueness is nothing but the reflection of the craziness living in us. Depending on the entity with which one is transacting currently, this appears in a multitude of genres, shapes, or composition, which we always overlook. It however leaves every society perpetually in a turmoil. More often than not, the refrain, the unfathomable human, is the one that makes sure that we will see nothing upsetting in this. Not that we are totally unaware of it. Suitable changes and corrections are a staple part of every society, and its governance. And every correction finds fault with the previous one, and promise bright prospects.
I think we need to go back to the fundamentals of the decision that gave ourselves the stamp of craziness. Re-examine how human became the ‘unfathomable’. What could have been the spark? Let us also think, whatever it was, it surely would have been a natural one. And in those days also people would have debated and deliberated in a manner similar to whatever style we follow these days, which essentially is nothing but a judicious mixture of knowledge and wisdom. In which case, we need to re-examine the origins of knowledge and wisdom. Now, it is not the human that is unfathomable, but wisdom and knowledge, the defining attributes of the human.
While pondering, I find both knowledge and wisdom originating from a basic property all living beings share. Sense, which is there with all forms of life. And we all sense, whether we want to, or not. Knowledge is an aggregate of all that we sense. Here, those that has relevance in matters of immediate gain, whether directly, or by reducing discomfort, takes prominence, any time. However, certain additional factors, both internal to each, and external to all, come into play when people start living as societies. These factors play an active role in modulating all that each one knows to do. And wisdom is nothing but an aggregate of knowledge, especially the modulated part of it, which, in the absence of a society, has no real scope for existence.
All of these play a major part guiding us to whatever path we take, or things we choose to do. Presently, we would like it to be a direct result of whatever we know. However, the wise ones among us would choose to have it examined by those wiser, and others follow suit. So, either our knowledge, or that of the wiser ones, is the one causing the element of ‘unfathomableness’. Thus, unless stamped as worthwhile, our choices or decisions will not see the light of the day. In turn, this introduces a lag between the events and occurrences that call for human intervention, and our response to it. The lag affects almost all our responses, making each one of those, rather inappropriate in time or circumstances.
The above is true for every human society. Also, the wild ambiance resulting out of this is traditionally accepted as a standard signature of the human race, which we celebrate as the one separating us from all other creatures. So, even now, we are unable to notice the unfathomable part of the human as something that may have an explanation.
In short, knowledge would have been acting as a worthy aid in whatever we do, perhaps in a little more elaborate manner in comparison with other forms of life, as it is, everywhere else. In addition, it kept on accumulating, and more so, since we are beyond ourselves in celebrating as wisdom, the accumulated product. And quietly it has reached a point, where it modulates knowledge itself. (Lenz’s law of knowledge?) The result is, whatever aid or comfort we derive out of knowledge need not be not the one befitting the events or circumstances. The cumulative effect of that inappropriateness makes our societies to remain perpetually on the boil.
I now feel the need to release ourselves from the dependence on wisdom. There may be some damage, but the resulting society or other arrangement will be something liberated from a state of perpetual unrest, and can easily meet it.
(An extract from my book, 'More Hubs that Provoke')
