Society: The Foundations

Society: A community of people (persons or individual humans) who share the same customs and laws.

I find myself pondering on the foundations of our society; starting from the smallest unit, the family, to the country/nation, Nigeria.

_Do we share the same customs and laws?_

I don’t think so. The laws and customs are agreed upon by all parties involved. If we all agreed to the laws and customs that govern our society, the prevalent discord we see today would be near non-existent.

The next paragraph is my attempt at explaining the origins of society.

In the early stages of man’s existence, primitive man was mainly split into two main groups: the hunters and the gatherers. Individually, both groups had their produce; the hunters had meat and the gatherers fruit and vegetables. I like to believe the divide was breached when each party had a taste of what the other had to offer; a variety of options. Trade became a norm (custom), the hunter exchanged meat for some fruit and vegetables and vice versa. The cost for this partnership was a reduced quantity of their respective produce; the benefit of this partnership was a variety of produce available to each party. The common law here was that one should not take from the other without an exchange. This to me is the basis of human societal interactions; we forgo something and benefit from another.

Prior to the society of hunters and gatherers there were individual groups. These groups were born out of similarities, shared occupations and such. I like to believe that it was boring being in a group where all did the same thing. This brought about continuous competition for the role of “Alpha Male”.

In primary school, we were taught that the family is the basic unit of society. This begs the question: **What are the laws and customs that we as individuals in our family units share? **

A successful family unit would grow into a larger family, eventually, a clan, a community, a village. Have we succeeded at the family level? NO!

If we want a meritocratic society, we should model that in our families first; a democratic system too. However, what do we do? We go on in acceptance of what is known, continuing in the vicious cycles that keep us from progress.

A society that gives precedence to keeping up appearances even in rot is a product of smaller units – families, communities, tribal groups – that stay incensed with pride. Pride in having an identity; an identity without evident productivity.

What are the benefits of being part of society?

We have a large pool of individual knowledge and experience we can learn from. We also have individual resources, some in excess, that could be put to greater good in a society.

I read recently of social contracts and what occurred to me was that most of our societal groups lack one. The basis for society is, in my opinion, to enhance the ability and capacity of an individual through shared resources and policies. The society should have a structure where it achieves its clearly stated aims.

**What are the foundations we want to build our society on? **

P.S.: Pardon my many questions; I’m just a young man with more questions than I have answers for. The answers are what I seek, even as I try to be of help in providing some answers to the questions of others.