Our Society through the Ages

At the very beginning

We, humans, have been social beings since before our species even began. It is baked into our DNA. Unlike other animals, we have passed an important threshold in the intelligence spectrum, which makes us entirely different from any other being we know of.

We have been studying other creatures since the age of the Ancient Greeks. While this gives us an important insight into our psyche, we still have only one example of our kind—us.

Our society has functioned more or less the same until about 12,000 years ago, with the beginning of the agricultural revolution. With agriculture, we left our nomadic lifestyle for the greener pastures of complex societies. Our society needed permanent shelter and protection. Men started to specialize in different roles in society. Some were farmers, some distributors, some overseers, and some protectors.

With stability tribes could now expand, bringing vast swaths of people under only a few leaders. Tribes began to compete. They needed more protection, so in came the kings and emperors. The royalty was free from participating in the harsh tasks of society so that they could focus on its management.

Wherever power consolidates, abuse happens. But has humanity ever gone for extended periods with no hierarchy? No, it hasn’t. Perhaps humans are not suited to have an equal society, not yet anyway.

East-West dichotomy

Modern society begins with taking power away from kings, who were only qualified by birth. Now birthright and meritocracy both play a role. People felt they had more social mobility in society because of democratization. Over the years society has gone through many changes in its values and structures. In this era of civilization, there are several forms of cultures to be found. Each differs from the other. There is no such thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, things are constantly evolving. Let’s talk about the two major modern ones: Western society & Eastern Society.

Since all cultures exist on a continuum, they all share certain ideals. Especially in recent years, eastern society has adopted a few choice values from the western one. Regardless, let us learn about modern society by comparing these two.

How does society leave an influence on its people? Through child-rearing, family structure, gender roles, workplace, class system, status, etc.

Society needs its fuels, humans. So, society has a great interest in its young ones. Society gives guidelines on how to raise children. Yet as children are essentially the parent’s property, society leaves a lot of room for parents to enforce their own will. This is more or less true based on the society we are discussing.

While the modern eastern society retains a lot of the traditional values with a few caveats, their western counterpart is the pathfinder of undiscovered territory. Western society is constantly reevaluating their preconceived notions and trying to improve upon their previous values. The east is not standing still; it is following the path cut out by the west. It’s not to say that western society has reached the final version of what human society could be, but they are certainly leading the pack.

Eastern society focuses on the traditional method of making a child a productive member of the family. And if being a productive member of the family aligns with being a productive member of society, then good, but if not, then so be it. Whereas a western child might learn to place more value on society than its own family, compared to their eastern counterpart. This results in nonviolent discipline methods, independence training, and rearing children based on the latest science.

The family structure and gender roles also follow the same trend. While the east takes solace in its tradition, the west travels in uncharted water. Traditional gender roles and family hierarchy are changing all over the world. In mainstream western society, everyone is equal except the children who will make up the under-class. While in the east, the majority—especially rural—society would have a hierarchy that goes by this order: the patriarch, adult male children, the matriarch, adult female children, the rest of the kids, and the grandkids.

Now, outside the family in the larger society, hierarchy still plays a big role in the east. There are many forms of hierarchy in place. By age, by birth, by class, by wealth, by academic certificate, etc. Though I would not consider measuring hierarchy by birth and wealth mainstream anymore. The west on the other hand doesn’t have a mainstream hierarchy, but de facto they have a wealth hierarchy. Many in the west wouldn’t consider that as a hierarchy on the false assumption that moving up on that hierarchy is a choice, facilitated by working hard.

The west can be concerned about the damaging effects of applied science on nature, the environment, and humanity because of its less dogmatic view, even though it conflicts with its values of individualism and materialism. Interestingly, at first glance, the east might seem like the place where the environment will be respected, but in actuality, it’s only so far as their family and tribe can benefit from the relative harmony with the environment.

The west’s quick pace of reforms brings some turbulence to its society. People who are struggling to keep pace with the fast-moving train sometimes feel scared of the swiftness and lash out. The east enjoys relative stillness in this aspect. The west’s willingness to unrest its society lends itself to diversity. And it’s a good thing for the west in the long run. Globalization and diversity are inevitable. The west leading the world puts them ahead of the curve.

While many people may find that I am favoring one over the other, I am not. I am favoring a standard where the west is just ahead of the curve and the east is following suit. In the future, we might see the east setting up the same standards for the rest of the world to follow. It’s good for humanity to have two competing visions for now. As it can help identify each society’s strengths and weaknesses by comparing them to the other.