Building a Responsible Society

Lecture 4
Emeritus Professor Lloyd Geering
Lecturer in Residence at St Andrew's on the Terrace, Wellington
June 30, 1998

Introduction

First I shall discuss at some length the nature of human society. This is an aspect which in my view has not yet been sufficiently covered. Then I shall sketch the nature of responsibility and why it is the key to what constitutes a society in good heart. Finally I shall outline what I think we can all do to promote the growth of the responsible society.

Society v. Individualism

That tells us a great deal about the political and economic ideology which has been called Thatcherism or the New Right. Thatcherism is based on the current popular philosophy of individualism. It acknowledges the existence only of human individuals, each with their own interests, rights and responsibilities; it does not attribute any importance or even existence to society.

Many of our current human and social problems can be traced back to the prevalence of this philosophy of individualism and its neglect of the importance of society. If politicians and analysts spent as much time and energy attempting to understand the nature of human society as they do to trying to understand the economy, our communal life today could be very much better. The failure to take society seriously has already been reflected in this series of lectures. Mrs Shipley did not even bother with a definition until she was asked for one by a questioner after her lecture had concluded. She then said she assumed that we all have some idea of what we mean by the term, and proceeded to give an off-the-cuff definition of society as "a group of people who have common interests and who have rights within it and responsibilities to it". She did somewhat better than Mrs Thatcher and many would not do as well as her on the spur of the moment. But that definition of society, I suggest, is not at all adequate. It could apply just as readily to an audience in the Michael Fowler Centre who have gathered to hear a symphony concert. They have a common interest. They have a right to seat because they have paid for it and they have the responsibility not to make noises which would interfere with the others rights to listen. But that does not make the audience into a society.

Helen Clark did somewhat better. She not only offered a definition at the outset but went much further that Jenny Shipley. She defined society as a community whose members have duties to one another. She went on to emphasise that society is a whole entity which is more than the sum of its parts.

To be fair to Jenny Shipley, she was simply reflecting what is a very common notion today, namely, that society is nothing more than an assembly of individuals, something which individuals form when they voluntarily join together for a common purpose. This notion of a society is actually quite modern. It came to the fore in the 17th and 18th centuries at the very time when modern individualism was coming to birth. It is reflected in the social-contract theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It assumes that individuals exist before society.

I wish to claim that it is actually the other way round; it is only because of society that each of us exists as an individual, each with our own identity, personal experience and capacity to think for ourselves.

Society makes Individuals

It is only over the last two to three hundred years that modern individualism has been developing to the point where we are now beginning to forget or ignore the essential nature of the cultural and social womb out of which we have come. We have even begun to speak of certain individuals as being self-made people. That is arrogant nonsense.

One of the reasons for failing to understand the importance of human society is the sheer complexity of modern society. In the distant past there was basically only one type of society—tribal society. The tribe was really an extended family held strongly together by blood ties. This originating tribal society can be described as a social organism. It is analogous to the physiological organism which constitutes the human body. That analogy has long been recognised in practice and is the reason why we speak of society as having a head and of the individuals within it as its members or limbs. Indeed, as the study of the Old Testament makes clear, the idea of society as a living organism was so strong for the people of ancient Israel that they used it as an analogy for understanding the human body. They thought of the heart, liver, intestines and all the other organs as together forming a society in which each had an identity of its own but also had to play its proper role for the good of the whole. We are in the reverse process of having to relearn the nature of society by studying it in the light of what we now know of human physiology.

Just as the physical human organism is a unity containing a variety of different organs held together by a bone structure, a nervous system and a blood stream, so the social human organism is a unity, held together by a complex set of relationships, a common language and a common body of ideas, knowledge, goals and aspirations or what we call its culture. The culture provides society with an identity and does for it what the mind and soul does for the individual being. To take the analogy further, just as the brain continues to function only while the heart does, so every member of human society is dependent, not only on every other member but also on the whole society and its culture. The failure to understand the nature of society at a time because of the growing prevalence of individualism prevails may herald the disintegration of society. Then individuals also suffer as a consequence. We are already witnessing some ominous signs of that disintegration.

The Importance of Society

Further, as we are now discovering, New Zealand society is a small part of an even more extensive global society, on whose health and destiny ours also ultimately depends.

The second reason why we do not appreciate the importance of society is that, in modern times, we have been in the process of moving from what may be called the closed society to the open society. By the closed society I mean one which surrounds itself with a clear and definite boundary line, providing for the social organism what the skin does for the physical organism.

Closed and Open Society

If one is in the closed society one's freedom is greatly restricted for one is deeply involved in the duties or morality of that society, which serve to promote it and preserve it. This morality is enforced by social pressure and by clear lines of authority from the top down. If one is outside of the closed society one is an outcast, an excommunicate or a foreigner. What is outside is foreign and potentially dangerous. The closed society has a very clear sense of its own identity and its members draw their own personal identity and security from it. What held the closed society together as a social organism was loyalty, trust and, above all, an absolute respect for authority .

Until the rise of the modern world all societies, whether tribal, ethnic, national or religious, were, to a greater or less degree, closed societies

The open society emerged in the modern world along with individualism. It is one where the boundary lines around the society are becoming blurred, making it relatively easy for some to leave and some to join. In an open society individuals enjoy much greater personal freedom and are not subject to nearly so much external authority. They are much freer to make their decisions and choose their own life-style within certain very broad limits. By the same token they must now exercise a great deal more responsibility, a topic I am about to turn to.

No human society is immortal or free from threat to its existence. Even tribal societies were sometimes wiped out by their enemies. The open society must not only continue to protect itself from external forces but, by its very nature, it is much more vulnerable than the closed society to forces which threaten it from within.

The forces from within the open society, which threaten to bring about its disintegration, arise out of the failure of its members to realise their ultimate dependence on society and hence to fulfil in a responsible way their obligations to society. In the open society much more responsibility is thrust upon the individual than in the closed society. Closed societies, by the authority they exert, cushion their members from having to exercise responsibility. The closed society keeps most of its people in a state of child-like dependence. Much of the decision-making is already done on their behalf.

What holds the closed society together as a social organism is authority, exercised both from above and through peer pressure. What holds the open society together as a social organism is the proper exercise of personal responsibility. Where that responsibility is lacking, the society either disintegrates or finds itself forced to return to the rigid authoritarianism of the closed society. Many of our current social problems derive from the fact that, in making the transition to the open society, we find we are not all adequately equipped with the responsibility needed to maintain it as a healthy social organism.

Responsibility

It is worth noting that when we use the word responsible we sometimes follow it with 'to' and sometimes with 'for'. There is an important difference. We are responsible for ourselves when, as adults, we take full responsibility for our decisions, our actions, our general manner and so on.

We can also be responsible to ourselves. This occurs when we strive to live with integrity by being honest with ourselves, when we try to develop for ourselves a good name or character.

In a similar way we are responsible to society when we acknowledge all that we personally owe to it and faithfully respond to it by fulfilling those duties which this social debt lay upon us. But we can also be responsible for society. This is when we acknowledge that we humans are social creatures who must support and care for one another. In particular we are being responsible for society when we care for the well-being of society, showing concern, for example to all who have been disadvantaged for one reason or another.

The Code

The reason for this, I suggest, is that it had much to say about our personal responsibility to society but it had very little or nothing to say about our responsibility for society. This is something we frequently, but not exclusively, do through the instrument of the government itself.

It is always important to remember that a democratic government is not some institution external to society. The government is our collective voice, elected to make decisions on our behalf, and exercising corporate responsibility on our behalf. Not all politicians, on being elected, seem to remember this.

A responsible society is one in which all individual members, along with its elected representatives, make responsible decisions and act responsibly both to one another and for one another. It is worth noting that when we take responsibility for ourselves we are at the same time being responsible to society; and when we are taking responsibility for society we are being responsible to ourselves as human beings showing some moral integrity. What I have briefly sketched as a responsible society is the ideal form of an open society. It is one where personal freedom and the use of human rights are equally balanced by the exercise of the responsibility.

Admittedly it is an ideal but it is an ideal which is worth striving for and one which is possible of realisation.

Building a Responsible Society

Secondly, it tends to suggest that those who build it are themselves in some sense outside of the society they are planning to build.

During this century we have seen how Lenin, Hitler, Chairman Mao and Pol Pot all attempted to build societies on the plan of a particular ideology. They have all been tragic failures.

Society is not an inhuman structure that can be built by one person or a group. Human society is a living entity, a social organism. Society evolves, through the innumerable decisions and activities of its members and through the complex relationships which hold them together. What we as individual persons can do, is either to assist society to grow healthy or to hinder that growth.

Again we may turn to the analogy with the human body. For a similar approach is becoming common in medical practice today. The doctor does not heal us. Our body, as a living organism, has the amazing capacity to heal itself, as our growing knowledge of our immune systems is helping us to understand. What medical practice can do is to assist the healing process, sometimes by giving aid to the healing processes and sometimes by removing those factors which are preventing it.

So how do we assist the on-going evolution of the responsible society? If a doctor is going to be able to assist the natural healing processes of the body he must have a good knowledge of human physiology. Similarly if we are going to assist the social organism in its growth to health, we must have an adequate understanding of the nature of human society. We need to be able to diagnose what is wrong with society at present and have a clear understanding of what a healthy society will be like. At present this sort of knowledge is sadly lacking in New Zealand.

I agree with Jenny Shipley that the promotion of the responsible society is not the task of the government, at least not on its own. It is the task of every individual, every family, every sub-group, and every institution—but that includes the government. The reason why the vision of the responsible society is lacking in the Government is because it is lacking in the society which elects the Government.

The Role of the Economy

The economy is undoubtedly important. And in this age of globalisation it is probably more important than it used to be. Our material welfare is much more dependent on people far away from us than it used to in the simple local economies of the past. The economy is important because we humans do live by bread. But we do not live by bread alone. In today's affluent societies we too easily forget that the happiness and health of human society depends on many other things besides bread and material things. For this reason we must seriously question the over-riding attention currently being given to economic issues. A well-known personage once said, "What does it profit a person to gain the whole world, only to lose his own soul". That still applies to individuals and it is also applicable to society, where it means, "What does it profit a society if it achieves zero inflation and maximises its economic growth, only to lose its soul and disintegrate". The well being of society depends on a great deal more than its GNP and its material standard of living.

While we put so much attention on the material standard of living we cannot altogether blame our government if it gives its supreme attention to the state of the economy. Ultimately we have ourselves to blame for Rogernomics and what it has done to society. In the interests of building a sound economy, we have been subjected in the last fifteen years to a drastic restructuring in many social sectors and it still continues. Roger Douglas acknowledged at the time, that restructuring was bringing severe hurt to society but promised that after the hurt was over all would be rosy. The economy may be in a healthier state than before; that is for economists to judge. But society itself is certainly in a generally worse state than before.

The drastic restructuring decreased or removed altogether many of ancillary services and infrastructure which had evolved over the decades to meet particular social problems. It caused much serious disruption to family life as people were unexpectedly made redundant and unemployed. Today there is a much greater sense of insecurity among us than before. We have much less trust in the Government and in political parties. We have less confidence in one another. These are all signs of a society moving towards disintegration.

The people at the top quintile, and that includes most of the decision makers, do not feel this for they have done well enough as individuals out of the restructuring and many have perhaps never been so well off in material terms. They are the ones who continue to applaud what has been done. Those in the bottom quintile are already much worse off than before. They suffer not only economic poverty. They are suffering more ill-health. They are being marginalised from the centre of society and often find themselves being lectured by the top quintile for not achieving more for themselves. New Zealand society has lost much of the unity it once had and is being torn in different directions. As a result of the restructuring, our social problems in health, education, crime, anti-social behaviour are now greater than they were before. Such things happen when social engineers start to apply drastic social surgery to the social organism in the interests of the economy and without an adequate understanding of the nature of the social organism. However much the recent and continuing restructuring may be regarded as economically sound, the future is likely to judge it to have been a social failure.

Rather than assisting the evolution of the responsible society, it has hindered it. The well-being of society cannot be measured in monetary terms; this is one of the reasons it tends to be overlooked. The well-being of society depends on strong and healthy personal relationships binding people together in society. It depends on the degree to which one finds in society such things as mutual goodwill, a sense of belonging to a living whole, sharing a common goal and value system.

This is what we have been steadily losing while we fastened attention on the economy. Because we have neglected those things which make for a healthy society, the chickens are now coming home to roost. How do we go about restoring the social values?

Social Values

It used to be said in Britain that the Church of England was the Tory Party at prayer. It is also well established that the British Labour Party had its origins in the Methodist Church. Roman Catholic Popes have issued some impressive declarations on social justice. Michael Joseph Savage called the policies of the first Labour Government practical Christianity. In other words the political planning of the earlier part of this century was arising from a basic social vision and a commonly accepted set of values.

Whereas at that time well above fifty per cent of the population participated in church activities and many of the rest still had some tenuous connection, active participation is now down to less than ten percent and in many cases youth activity has all but disappeared. There is almost certainly some correlation between the rapid decline in the churches' influence and the alarming growth in anti-social behaviour.

Just because the churches now exist in a greatly diminished state of vitality does not excuse them from the task of helping to promote a responsible society. Indeed, this church of St. Andrew's, by founding the Trust for the Study of Religion and Society, and by promoting such lectures as these, is itself attempting to highlight what needs to be done. At their best the churches are still trying to give some degree of leadership. But they have far less influence and, because of their strong tendency to live in the past and promote outworn beliefs and moralities, they have become marginalised.

In this more secular age no social institution has arisen to take over their function of fostering social values. It has been left to other institutions and groups to do it as a by-product of their main function. I am thinking of the educational system, sporting bodies and one-interest groups such as Red Cross and Amnesty International. It is largely through them that things are not worse than they are.

Economic Ideology of the New Right

• All persons should be responsible for themselves and look after their own interests.
• We are not our brother's keeper. This infringes personal privacy and
• Help given to others for nothing in return only diminishes the initiative of such people and leads them into a permanent state of dependency.
• There are no free lunches and the world owes no one a living.
• Only those who pay should have the use.
• The Government should not interfere with personal affairs.
• People know better than the Government how to spend their own money. Taxes should be reduced to the bare minimum.
• All production should be privatised.
• Efficiency is the key to a healthy economy.
• Efficiency leads to maximum profit and this leads to the maximum happiness for all individuals.
• All inefficiency must be eliminated even if it means social dislocation, redundancy and unemployment.
• Competition is one of chief techniques for promoting efficiency, so competition must be increased.

Economy v. Society

The social values, on the other hand, call for:

• Co-operation instead of competition,
• They call us to look after others as much as ourselves.
• They call us to make personal sacrifices for the common good.
• They call us to share our material goods.
• They tell us that we have a common destiny or no destiny at all.
• They tell us to be willing to give without expectation of any return.
• They insist on justice and fairness in all our dealings.
• They call for honesty and openness, not secret dealings.
• They tell us our differences need to be resolved by dialogue rather than by confrontation.

Just at this moment we are learning that our economy is in deep trouble and there is no easy solution. But our society is in even more trouble, if we are willing to open our eyes to read the signs. There is no quick fix for a society which is suffering disintegration.

But there is this difference. The economy—as an intricate means of exchange of goods and services—is a humanly made thing. We can reconstruct it, if only economists could agree what to do. But society is not our creation. Society is a living entity, which draws its life from our lives. If we, its members, learn how to co-operate for the common good, society will display its own remarkable powers of recovery. That has been revealed in the past in times of crisis, in natural disasters such as earthquakes, in economic crises like the Great Depression, or when we face a common external threat as in war. Basic to the human species there remains in us humans the remnant of that social sense that enabled us to be what we have become. That is where our real hope lies.

Perhaps our economic crisis may have to worsen a great deal more yet, before that social sense is re-awakened and we are prompted to acknowledge and practise those social values so essential for the well-being of the social organism of which we are a part. It is society which has created us and made our life possible. The more we realise that and respond to the needs of society in a responsible way, the more it will recover and flourish again as what may be properly called the responsible society.

Subheadings were added by the Editor.

The Lectures