Society and the individual
Question from the Internet:
“How does society (and everything that happens within) impact the character and being of a person?”
Society acts like a “human incubator”, nurturing us and shaping us into who we are and become.
While we all have our inherent individual qualities, we also received our upbringing and education — which upbringing and education are already influenced by the society we live in — before we become active members of society; from that moment of becoming active members of society, we are plugged into the “Matrix” of society.
There is nothing we can do; there is nowhere we can escape. All our goals, aspirations, values, our behavioural patterns, and the way we dress, speak, make love eat and drink are all the result of the incessant brainwashing we receive from society.
This influence and brainwashing have become totally irrevocable in modern society when we are under the influence 24/7 through media, entertainment, social media and other such influences that reach us through multiple devices and from multiple angles. And since we are also integrated and interdependent with each other, we all become “influencers” towards each other even without our technology.
There is nothing we can do since human beings are social beings. Without human companions, we revert and become like simple animals, living according to instincts, caring only for basic day-to-day survival.
If we feel that the general societal influence is harmful and detrimental to us — as most people feel today — our only “escape” is to build a new, closed, qualitatively higher closed environment for ourselves with like-minded, mutually supportive, and mutually complementing people.
If such a smaller environment can define for itself truly positive, constructive and purposeful goals and values and the members all commit to the goals and values “as one man with one heart,” they can create such a strong bond and shield that not only can they shun the negative and destructive influence of the larger and general society but can later become the positive examples and rescue boats to the sinking “Titanic” or collapsing “Matrix” of the general society where from more and more people will try to escape.
Where this smaller environment gets its values, foundations, principle, and methods is already a different topic deserving its own discussion…