Living in the “I” world

Abstract

In this chapter, I’d like to build on my comment (in Chap. 22) that our greatest challenge today is to create societies governed by shared responsibility and reciprocity. In 1887, the sociologist and philosopher Ferdinand Tönnies published Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Community and Society), in which he drew a distinction between the two societal forms. In Gemeinschaft—community—social ties are defined on the basis of personalized social relationships, and the roles, values, and beliefs associated with these interactions. Gesellschaft—society—is more impersonal and rational, characterized by indirect interactions, formal roles, and generalized values and beliefs. Gemeinschaft is applied to peasant communities (families, tribes, or villages) within which human relationships are prized, the welfare of the group takes precedence over the individual, traditional bonds of family, kinship and religion prevail, and personal relationships are defined by traditional social rules. In contrast, Gesellschaft is representative of a more urban, cosmopolitan society with an individualistic outlook, where social ties are more instrumental and superficial. In short, self-interest prevails, and efficiency and other economic and political considerations have pride of place.

I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did.

―Frank O’Hara

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

—Dalai Lama