What are the foundations of our societies? By that, I mean, what are the fundamental pillars that if removed, would cause all societies to radically change or fall into decline. If we understand these, perhaps we will be better able to build better societies and make the world a better place.
1) Geology
We are shaped by where we live. The rocks of the islands of the UK are varied, which creates varied landscapes and therefore a varied people, but close together. This, perhaps, made us tolerant of differences in our neighbours and we learn to get along together, (sort of.( The fact that we had coal, limestone and access to ironstone and minerals, all in close proximity caused the development of steam power and the industrial revolution.
Thanks to plate tectonics, these islands are located on the edge of an ocean in a temperate weather zone making for a damp mild maritime climate ideal for growing food and wood. The rocks also create good and bad soils that drive innovation to improve agricultural efficiency. Our coast made us proficient in global travel and trade and our location in the world meant we can do deals with the east in the morning and the west in the afternoon.
The attractiveness of these islands caused others to attack and the residents to defend themselves. Therefore we have always been a warrior nation.
Geography and the ground beneath our feet, undeniably determine and influence us. Unfortunately we cannot change the rock on which they live, but many people move to where the geography and geology is better suited to easy living. This has happened through out time and continues to this day.
Everyone wants to improve their lives, it has always happened and will always continue.
2) Utilities ie Water, Communication, Energy and Waste Disposal
Whilst looking archaeological sites, I half joking said that a key indicator of civilization is drainage. The Romans had bath houses, the early Chinese and ancient Egyptians had irrigation. and our house has Thurday bin collections and clean energy sources.
As I worked for over 35 years in the construction industry I soon learnt the importance of “plugging” our buildings into the networks of services essential for their use. Water, energy, telecoms, postal deliveries, access routes were the inputs whilst drains, flues, and refuse bins were the outputs. And where all these inputs come from and out puts go are just as important. Lose one and life becomes much more difficult.
Here in the UK we don’t think about these things enough and we take them for granted. But disposal into the atmosphere of the invisible waste gases from burning of fossil fuels is now recognised as unsustainable due to man made climate change.
3) Reasonable Force
We all live in societies and in order to function, those societies must have rules that moderate individuals behaviour for the good of everyone. With rules, or law and order as it is also called, comes enforcement, and underlying all enforcement is violence, or "reasonable force" as it is called.
If someone breaks the law the police will arrest them. If they resist, force or state permitted violence will be used to take them to trial. If they resist being locked up more state permitted violence will occur. Modern methods of behivour control may focus on education and character reform, but if these fail, the fall back position is use of violence. It's the most basic form of punishment and control and is present in all societies.
Whether they like it or not, all societies must be prepared to use violence. As Ukraine found out, if another country invades with unrestrained violence, there is only one response possible if that society is to survive. However, it is the duty of every society to reduce and keep violence to an absolute minimum, as violence always creates victims. This is done by maintaining a fair and just legal system, police forces and defensive military forces, that people respect and conform to.
Israel has the right to use violence against those that attack it. But it has now gone far beyond reasonable force and it's government is now just as bad as its attackers.
4.Culture
Culture is the set of beliefs, values and traditions that a society holds and believes to be true. It is learnt as a child and because people find change hard, only develops slowly. Culture has many facets such as attitudes to education, technology, art, religion etc etc, but the most important is a societies treatment of others. Hence the golden rule of treating others as you would like to be treated yourself is promoted in many cultures, but I would like to see others to include other living creatures and future others. This would promote better care for the natural world now and in the future.
Here in the UK, we are losing faith in religion and belief in a god. This means subtle changes in behaviour as the constraining meme of an omnipotent, an all seeing god, is replace with ineffective CCTV cameras. Other subtle changes are good such as increased equality for sexual diversity and women.
In a world of internet communications and a voice for all, different cultures are made visible to each other and conservative views can lead to friction. However, today’s rapid rate of cultural exchange is bringing the world together for better, as outdated flawed ways of thinking are exposed and dropped. (Although some major local problems persist).
5 Natural World
Farming has long been seen as the bedrock of civilization. Farmers make a food surplus so that others have time to do other things such as art (which is good) or warfare (which is bad). But farming is just a modification of the natural world and as be are beginning to realise is essential for mental health as well as sustainable food production.
So making the world a more natural place and undoing the damage we have caused is all for the positive.
6 Economics
In the Sci fi TV programmes Star Trek, money doesn’t exist . It’s been eliminated as all human want’s and desires can be unlimitlessly provided for. Nice idea which will work on a space ship, but I can’t envisage a society with out a reward, exchange and redistribution system. And that means money, taxes and economics.
Make something or do something that society values and you get rewarded in the form of money that you can exchange for something that others make or do that you value.
Governments tax this exchange, hopefully fairly, so that all contribute into a pot that the Government then spends for the good of all society.
As we all have different skills, and no one can produce everything he needs to live in a modern world, and skillful or lucky people will amass more money than others. Therefore this exchange and redistribution system is essential. So I’m afraid we will all have to suffer boring economics and endless politics (which is mainly arguing about taxes and how to spend them) for ever. (Sorry).
7 Reproduction
We are social animals, but whilst we frequently focus on the social part of our nature, we overlook the fact that we are still animals. The biological purpose of our lives is to reproduce and most of our existence is still determined by a pursuit of successful offspring with the best possible partner we can team up with. Also reproduction is essential for a society to continue.
Because of this we strive for status, wealth, power, attractiveness which makes us sexy. If you think of what you do or did in life, nearly all of it can be explained as a competitive mating game. But if we recognize this within ourselves and move away from the excesses of this game, namely greed, selfishness and competitiveness, then the world would be a much better place. Being nice is sexy too.
Some societies with falling birth rates, are permitting migration in order to maintain themselves. But migration brings cultural change to both the migrants and the residents, who may resist if the rate of change is perceived as being too fast. Management of the perception of migration is therefore essential, as well as management of the actual numbers arriving.