There are many views on how to create a harmonious social order and maintain civil and social stability. One may have an optimistic view and say these can be based on a foundation of love and kindness. However, this is highly unlikely as humans allow their own fear of rejection and failure to overpower their will to love. This isn't to say that humans can’t love one another unconditionally or act kindly towards others, but that since the known beginning of mankind, there has never been a society that's been unaffected by anger or fear, thus it is possible to say that humans may be incapable of holding permanent respect for all of mankind and approaching all people and situations with a caring attitude. This approach would be necessary for civil and social stability to be based only on love and kindness.
Others may believe that society won’t allow us to base our interactions only off of the kindness with which we treat others and ourselves, and that kindness and love is only a small factor. Because of the constant fear of failure that humans hold deep within themselves, kindness and love are sometimes difficult for us to express and because of this reluctance, it would make it difficult to build a stable society on those concepts alone. This would be difficult because during the times that people (or even one sole individual) can’t express love and/or kindness, it would throw the society off-balance and therefore make it unstable, even if it is for just a short period of time. Therefore, it would not be society itself that would make a kindness-based society difficult to build and maintain, but rather human nature.
Personally, I believe that social order must be based on more than just love. It isn't realistic to assume that any individual is capable of loving anyone and everyone, especially all the time. While it is a nice ideal, I think that too much is allowed to get in the way of expressing love and performing acts of kindness. Because people have a mentality that makes them strive to achieve things they view as having a higher value, they may think that the concept of love has become of lesser value than something tangible, which they would then incorporate into society instead. Rather than having a society based on kindness, I think that shared beliefs are important. Civil and social stability can be harmonious if a group comes together for a common cause and has a sense of unity and common identity. I think a shared core value and a sense of connection to others can create stability within a society, as people tend to look for things they have in common with each other and they tend to associate and identify with people who have goals, ideas, values, and beliefs that are similar to their own. Overall, stability denotes something that is strong and resistant to change, and when a society is built on something as abstract and ever changing as an emotion, a concept, such as love/kindness, it is difficult to categorize it as “stable.”
I agree with you that a society needs more than just love to be stable. I don't think that all beliefs of a society need to be shared for it to function. For example, our country has many different beliefs and values. Everyone doesn't agree on all issues and people definitely have different beliefs, yet we all have a common sense of unity as a country.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea that it's not love that makes a society function but shared beliefs and values that bring unity. I think, however, that the shared beliefs in general are not what creates stability but rather respect for the beliefs of others. There are so many different beliefs in our society that without this respect our society would just become more separated instead of unified. Because we know it's important to respect others beliefs we are able to have a strong culturally diverse society where everyone gets along and is able to benefit from each other's ideas.
ReplyDeleteHi, Carly. You have somewhat missed the point of the question. I didn't ask if you thought a society based on love was achievable. What I asked was even more fundamental and hypothetical in nature: would a harmonious society necessarily follow from everyone treating everyone else lovingly? Would the result be civil and social stability or not?
ReplyDeleteThe question of whether we can achieve it or not in our society is secondary to the question of whether or not it would produce the desired result. I want to know if a society governed solely by love and kindness is even worth trying to achieve. See where I'm coming from?
The answer isn’t as obvious as you seem to think. Visualize what a society would be like if everyone was taught from birth to be nice and to think about others before themselves. Would there be things like laws and schools (civil order)? Would it be “loving” to set a speed limit? To enforce it? Would there be things like families and dating (social order)? Remember, we’d need to love everybody equally—no favorites! Just because people are kind to you, would you necessarily have a happy life?
You do a nice job suggesting what is needed in addition to love but avoid specifics. Do you agree with Confucius that li is what's needed?