Feeling Disconnected From Society
I think it’s natural to find oneself disconnected. The very structure of practical life is forcing, and never-ending in its labors. If one is not lucky enough to find a real friend, a hobby that helps them belong, or a sense of peace within their life, they are alone, and disconnection becomes a justifiable reaction.
This problem comes about because society, which is a general term, merely refers to an aggregate of people living in a particular area. The larger and more diverse a society, the harder it is to find one’s own belonging in it. Furthermore, because society is merely an abstraction, the sense of belonging within it feels subjective, transient and moment-dependent, rather than real. I see particulars, such as people who share a liking for some activity, people who subscribe to the same ideologies, people who have similar cultural or ethnic roots, but never do I see a Oneness, a total unity between them all.
No Oneness could come about if a person doesn’t feel obligated to care about their society. Public trust in the U.S. government might be the lowest it’s ever statistically been, so you can only imagine what public trust in others is like. Without a restructuring of the concept of trust, one only feels related to their fellow person through mutual non-aggression, which is not good enough. The very concept of ‘stranger’ needs to be dissolved if we want to have a functional society, and yet we pass countless strangers wherever we go. Friendship is a very mystical thing, in that it creates belonging between two isolated beings, which means it might be the solution to social problems.
I speak for everyone when I say we must offer more compassion to the average person. If the ego makes us only think of personal gain, it is not something to be proud of, and we must not let the obsession with self disconnect us from the whole. Even if we care for others, we must be considerate of all our interactions to see if things are stable in our own hearts.
Perhaps a better idea of society would be one where, like Socrates said in “The Republic”, people lend their skills to one another and thereby achieve a higher level of prosperity in shared peace. If there is usually society following a state of nature, we must at least be willing to construct the most efficacious one. However, such a society is necessarily going to do better if it’s unified, and it must be free of danger. If we look to all the cities and towns that are crime-ridden, corrupt, neglected, we will have a starker picture of this issue.
I am an avid critic of the modern industrial society, one where people mostly work and talk about work and sleep so they can get to work. It is not only less interesting than a creative society, but also much more soul-crushing. Work is not the only problem — this sort of society also seems to give way to people who so strongly believe in their freedom, and with such hedonistic selfishness, that there can be no room for bettering the whole. Also, there’s a tendency for ideological orthodoxy, one that’s applied top-down and hurts anyone who wishes to really get at the truth. It is very disconnecting.
I think we have to take steps to achieve the Socratic conception of social order, as it might be the only thing capable of saving us from disarray. Beyond your family, your friends, your beliefs and values, there is something in you that fundamentally gives you belonging, your unique you-ness. Rather than contrive a society of conformists, why wouldn’t we value what a person can give at the root level? That, my friend, is the reason for the disconnection. If someone feels alienated because society does not regard them with any importance, their only other choice is to break free from society altogether, and declare themselves a separate entity. I only hope that some of us can find peace in this instability, and maybe we will even improve our society.
Thank you.
