Is the Modern Society fit to live in?
Three Stages of the World
So far we have seen three stages the world of men has passed through.
First was Traditional Society; in this stage men lived together in small groups related by kinship, and had a local point of view. This stage includes all the time of the men-who-came-before modern man. It includes, as far as we can tell, the apes who came before the first of the men-who-came-before modern man, since we find the same social order in the other apes.
The second stage was a Transition to the modern world; in this stage most men lived together still ins mall groups related by blood, but they were ruled by overlords, those who came to be called Kings. The Kings took taxes from the small clans and promised to protect their lands, and most men now thought in terms of the broader territories of the King’s realm. The Kings used their greater wealth to support their armies and also to build palaces, around which true towns and cities grew; these were where larger groups of men lived together who were not related even distantly by blood. Religion likewise grew into hierarchies and larger organizations; a state religion would be endorsed by the King with a High Priest, elaborate temples, under-priests, all supported by the taxes levied on lesser men. This stage was mostly traditional, since almost all men lived yet in the small clans, because many farmers had to work to support their own lives and also pay the taxes that upheld one soldier or priest.
The third stage is Modern Society; in this stage men live as individual consumers and hirelings and bosses of the dominant class. So far the family remains one of the parts of society, but the Corporation or Collective, Consumerism, mass-Religion, and the State undermine the family from all sides. So now the family has mostly shrunk to its basic core: today the family exists, where the Modern Society is most pronounced, only to raise children to young adulthood. Many marriages do not last even long enough to see their children reach nubility; many children are raised by single parents; many children are raised at institution by agencies of the State.
What Next?
I do not think the transitional stage has ended.
I do not think we know as yet what the Modern World will look like once the money-class reduces the local and national governments to merely ceremonial roles, and the interwoven groups of Corporations rule the world openly.
I do not believe the Modern Society to come will be the final stage in the world. Others will no doubt come after it.
Traditional Society grew ‘organically’ if you will. It developed over hundreds of thousands of years, and likely millions of years. It grew by trial and error, blindly, under no master plan or any plan at all. The way each traditional social group is made up is never rigid, it is always fluid, it shifts with the relative strength, will, and wits of its living men.
As a result it seems safe to say that Traditional Society on the whole came to represent the ‘true nature’ of man, if only because those Traditional Societies that tried something ‘un-natural’ failed to survive.
Modern Society began to emerge from the transitional societies only 2,500 years ago, mostly in China as the three great Kingdoms warred with one another, made alliances with the lesser kingdoms, and spawned various Theories of social organization in search of one that would bestow a competitive advantage in warfare. One of the three Kingdoms at last, after centuries of war and rivalry, united most of China and the new Empire came to be.
Most of the world remained Traditional and transitional. Much of the world to this day is Traditional, and in other parts it is transitional. Some states take on the outer mask of Modern Society, but under the mask they remain transitional, and their ‘elected Presidents’ are but Kings with a new title wearing business suits.
Modern Society did not grow out of the trials of many generations of men. To all practical ends, Modern Society as we know it today began less than twenty generations ago. (Only in China is this not true; the layers of government officials in China can trace their start back 100 generations to the founding of the empire of Qin.) Outside China, modern society rests upon new and unproven systems and Theories. In most cases those Theories have been confused with national character, the accidents of history, or the uneven distribution of natural resources, and these chance coincidences have been offered as ‘proof’ that one Theory or another is ‘better’ than the others. (Would for example a Capitalist, money-class, rule-of-law United States of America be as powerful today if its lands were more like Australia?)
Questions
So the first question we must ask ourselves, when we look at the world today and try to forge a path ahead, is this: If traditional society shaped itself to suit the nature of man, then how can the new forms of Modern Society suit the nature of man? They can not.
Are we no longer men?
Are we mutants now?
(Composed with pen on paper Thursday, March 20, 2008)
