SOCIETY
What is it? Does it even exist?
The answer to this as with any other question for that matter is determined as much by the rational of the person framing ‘The Question’ as it is to those receiving ‘The Answer’.
Maggie Thatcher infamously intoned “Society there is no such thing as society”. The notion of human beings working together for the common good of all is totally alien to someone whose concept of life is derived from a Balance Sheet of Profit and Loss Accounts. The mind of the petty bourgeoisie makes for an ideal manager of Capitalism but remains ill fitted for the benefit of the human race.
Society has existed for as long as there has been people to form one, the continued evolution of homo sapiens has only been possible by its ability to work together to sort out the myriad of problems life continually throws at them, if not by 2009 of the Christian calendar humanity would have become an extinct species out evolved by some other life form. If humanity is to continue to have any kind of future this inherent capacity must never be forgotten, lost or dispensed with as ballast not needed on life’s journey, especially with Capitalism as the abiding economic motive force driving society inexorably onward.
Before contemplating the future it’s relevant to make a summation of the past and hopefully draw some conclusions to help make sense of today’s predicaments. In taking a retrospective view it’s easy to assume knowledge of a subject and indeed commence writing in that sense. People short of the staff of life to sustain their existence will look to those with food for help even to accept the merest crumbs from their table. Those left bereft of representation for their ills in the halls of the high and mighty will at least glance in the direction of those who appear to give a monkies for their existence.
So it was in the development of society from Feudalism to Capitalism ‘The Managers’ evolved, those with a vested interest in this evolution in insuring not only their own survival but a means of profiting from it. Karl Marx coined them the Petty Bourgeoisie, as distinct from the Bourgeoisie whose system it was or at least owned and/or controlled it, the best the Petty could hope for was to be allowed to manage it and thereby wrest some comfort and position out of it. Through necessity they developed their own political representative body which took somewhat different forms as the transition progressed.