Social Order

Creating order from chaos: both on a societal level, as well as how it relates to the notes written on the board during Monday's class :)

Social Order: Government

1. How do do people react when group existence has suddenly become a blank slate? In other words, if all of our society's structures, laws, institutions were eliminated, how would people respond to their new circumstances? In class, we discussed this question in terms of being stranded on a deserted island with 1000 other people. 

• What happens first?
• Then what?
• How does this situation pan out in the days, weeks, months, etc. to come?

-Nuez suggested that people will quickly begin a battle of the survival of the fittest. This is an "every man for himself" sort of option, in which people's first priority is self-preservation. In order to ensure their personal security, they will lose no time in constructing weapons with which to attack each other and eliminate any potential threats. 

• An important concept that is present in Nuez's explanation is the concept of anarchy. This is a state of society in which there is no official government. Alternatively, anarchy may refer to general chaos or political disorder.

-Holli countered this idea with her suggestion that people will instead work together, and through unity, teamwork, and cooperation they will rely on each other to ensure their safety and general well-being. In this way, they will essentially go about rebuilding the structure of the society from which they emerged. This will necessarily involve both teamwork as well as conflict, much like we find in our communities at present. 

-Mayah S. modified Holli's suggestion a bit: she suggested that people will self-divide into allied groups, based on the priorities and jobs they held in their previous lifestyle (off the island). 

• Holli's and Mayah's explanations lend themselves to a couple important social structures that we will discuss in the coming week. Perhaps you can begin considering what sorts of structures these might be? 

-Brett's suggestion provided some overlap between the above scenarios: his is one of ambiguous trust, in which people work together during the daytime hours when they can clearly see each other and protect themselves by the light of day, but at night, people will crawl into high trees in order to prevent others from attacking them in secret. So in this scenario, people still do not trust each other, and they sense that at any point other island dwellers pose a threat to their safety, but they overcome this fear during the day to cooperate and attempt some degree of group progress. 

-Noah hinted at a structure that is philosophically similar to Nuez's survival of the fittest idea: people may work together to create a workable structure for survival, but ultimately, they will put the frailer and less useful members of society (for example, the very old, the sick, the disabled, the weak, etc.) in the line of fire when it comes to facing danger. These people will be sacrificed for the greater good. 

• Both Brett and Noah have presented ideas that draw from the concept of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is when a small part of a community or society is sacrificed in order to provide greater benefit for the majority of the population. 
• For a great short story about the practical and philosophical consequences of utilitarianism, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading this piece: http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf It's only 8 pages, and the language isn't very difficult. I think some of you will enjoy it quite a bit! 

We received a lot of great input from many other students, but here I'm listing the main points that were on the board. 

2. The next question is how the island people actually go about putting their plan into effect. For some of the above examples, this question doesn't really apply. But for those that require ordered groupings and structure, how do you decide how to take charge of the situation? 

We discussed one option in particular, which was that a single person will take control of the people, and will be able to do so based on the urgency of the situation. In other words, the island population is so desperate for order and are so scared for their safety, that they will readily allow one person to control their entire society for the sake of achieving some level of security. 

• This government structure is called a dictatorship. A dictatorship is a government in which one person has the ultimate power to make all the decisions for his/her people. 
• Many leaders, not just dictators, use charisma to help them acquire and maintain the support of the people. Charisma is a sort of personal magnetism- it helps inspire people to trust and believe in one's leadership capabilities. 

...To be continued next class!