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Earthblog

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Learn the gracious arts of both giving and receiving.

 - Harmony Lake Farm

 

We all moan and groan about the loss of the quality of life through the destruction of our ecology, and yet each one of us, in our own little comfortable ways, contributes daily to that destruction. It's time now to awaken in each one of us the respect and attention our beloved mother deserves.

 - Ed Asner

 

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.

 - Helen Keller

 

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

 - Mahatma Gandhi

The Social Body

The establishment of a sustainable social structure will be synonymous with a community’s gradual progress in becoming less dependent upon modern society.  The cooperative interactions between people are what make a community possible, and indeed we are all dependant upon one another for most things we need. A complete social structure must be built gradually because all the sections of society are interdependent. 

In a rural agrarian society everyone should be engaged in growing crops to one degree or another. As an example, someone who is actually an organic expert will be more experienced and knowledgeable in growing crops, and someone who is a teacher will be more expert in the specifics of that occupation, but still both should be engaged in growing crops and in teaching. The teacher will primarily be teaching, and secondarily tend to his or her own gardens. The organic expert will be gardening, and secondarily be teaching and helping others in their gardening. Each one will focus more on his or her particular area of expertise, but not to the exclusion of all else.

The Social Body

The social body can be compared to the human body.  Just as the human body has four basic parts that perform four different functions, the social body does also. These four parts are the head, the arms, the stomach or belly, and the legs. In the social body these four include:

Head - teachers, intellectuals, scientists, priests, spiritual guides, etc

Arms - leaders and protectors of society: the government, military, police, and administrators

Torso - those who produce valuable commodities for society, beginning with food and clothing

Legs - those who support or entertain those in the other three roles

These four parts of the social body exist quite naturally in every single society in the world.  However, there are various perversions of the proper system, which can be seen in different countries or different periods of history. One type of perversion takes place when one part gains too much power. A second type of perversion is the caste system, whereby one’s occupation is determined by birth, based upon how one’s father or family was occupied - as opposed to one’s own qualification, nature and desire. A third type is when people are completely unqualified to take up a role but do it anyway. All of these perversions are usually systemic.

The proper structure exists when:

· there are qualified people in each role

· every role is seen as equally important and valuable

· no part is trying to do the job of another part

· those in the categories of “torso,” “arms,” and “head” are of progressively higher moral character

· each person has understood their own nature and has thus taken up a role that is personally satisfying.

This is no easy task. Although everyone has a particular nature that falls into one or more of these broad roles, nobody wants to be told what they should do.

In an ideal society each person seeks guidance from respected elders or other qualified persons who know them personally.  They are thus able to get a true understanding of  their own nature and take up an occupation that will be satisfying to them. It is like career counseling but on a much deeper and more personal level. Of course this requires the presence of such elders and qualified persons.

College career counseling and modern educational processes do not take into consideration the character of the counselor or teacher.  The result of such a flawed process is a society with considerable “knowledge” and very little character. The development of character is then left primarily to the parents, which is too great a burden for one or two people especially in the years of young adulthood.

Therefore the primary qualification for someone to accept an instructing or educational role in society should be personal character, and secondarily to have specific knowledge. This includes everyone in that category, even scientists. There are innumerable cases of fraud even in the scientific community, and many scientists have to practically prostitute themselves to the agencies funding their research.

In addition to this is the fact that a person can change as he or she progresses in life. If one becomes qualified for a different role, and is desirous of that role, there is no reason not to adopt it. Once again this should be done with consultation and introspection.

In modern society a worker sometimes requires almost as high a degree of specific occupational knowledge as a teacher or scientist. Everyone has to specialize. The difference is supposed to be in the level of personal character required for various roles, not the degree of occupational knowledge.  No one gets too alarmed if a construction worker smokes, drinks, swears, and publicly chases the opposite sex, but when teachers, priests or leaders do this it creates problems. Of course we then find teachers, priests and leaders who do these things discretely, but in reality they are not qualified to accept those occupational roles. 

In starting a sustainable agrarian community the first need is to arrange for the basic necessities of the residents. The entire social body must be involved.  There are two aspects to this:

a) the residents must all be producing something of value within the community which meets individual or collective needs

b) the Master Plan of the community must include structured arrangements to meet the resident’s needs and/or allow them to meet their needs themselves

However, people have different needs at different stages of their lives.

Next - (Social Structure) Stages of Life