Each humans are a part of a wider human society. As a whole we have many things to do together. But still there is contrast in views from person to person. This is a good topic to discuss and understand. Not only personal things but also the cultural and social backgrounds are considered here. Because one man alone is nothing and he is a product of a wider social system since we had started living in such a system. So we have difference in culture, social interaction, personal perspective,etc. But beyond all we are trying to unite the humanity. So this contrast in thought have to be well understood. For that we have to see each aspect of these subjectively.
The Social Life
Humans are animals which has a social life. But also other animals does have this then what is special about humans? Yes there is something special. Because all progress that human society had achieved till date is not only due to our brain but also due to an effective system. For example think about a scientific research team. You could find great brains in the team , but they are working together for achieving a better work. This is what making the difference. That is it never mean that other animals have less ability than us, but due to greater co-ordination as a system allow an accelerated development.
We could say social system was first established when ancient man started forming groups. They are somewhat like the groups like that formed by animals. That doesn’t have a wide chain. The primary motive of this kind of aggregation was their need. Then humans wasn’t even started agriculture , and primary source of food was by hunting. For this a greater manpower is needed, also to defend against attacks by wild animals it is safe to live in a group. These are groups which was united by needs. Interestingly today also the cause of formation of a group is needs, there may be change within that. This unity help them to survive. They could also make weapons from stone, wood,etc. But the expanding population wanted more food source.
The primary motive of agregation of people is needs
The agriculture began from here. The pressure of population limited the food source and hunting was not at all a good option or food. They started cultivation. Patches of forests turned into fields. But men are more involved in this practice than woman, which also led to male dominance in society. This production process need more interaction with “outer world” which they was not familiar with. There this small groups open up to form a larger group in various geographical areas. This leads to the formation of an economic system also. All these was self modifying and expanding which ultimately reached the modern world, after many changes and revolutions. From this we could see that the system and man had progressed together like a cyclic process. So everyone is indeed a product of the social system.
Changes in humans
The ancient man had only one problem, hunger. We could hardly think that he was also considered about the existance of his species. But compare it with a modern man, he ave a lot more to think that start from daily life to highly intellectual problems. With respect to ancient society modern one have much more complicated things. This created the personalities also.
In genetics we could say that the fittest organism will survive. But how does this happen? Is they evolved according to the changing environment? No, basically in the process of natural selection one among the organism which had a change in genome which allow them to survive will be left in a changed environment. And there is no wonder and magic in it. That is it’s all about probability . Nothing is there by intention . Then why don’t we think about human mind this way? It also has a great option by probability in the long history of mankind.
But there we have to see a big difference between natural and human social system. Here one who have a changed mindset will have to face a greater resistance. So the diversity in thought was suppressed by society in many examples. Take the cause of science itself. When a man first said that the earth is like a sphere in a mob believing that it is not became not acceptable by the society. Galilio who said that sun is the center had to spent a long period of his life in darkness. So the world governed by religion retarded the diversity of thought, as they want to keep all ideas ultimately reaching to what they said and ultimate truth according to them which doesn’t actually exist. So this could look like a dark period.
Later like enlightenment in Europe the knowledge break the religious shell and it became independent and more scientific. Society was more based on facts. Anyone questioning existing things are accepted if they are able to prove that. But the conservative nature of the system didn’t fully replaced. Mostly that effected a majority. So eventhough the scientific society have diversity in thoughts it is needed for that and will never cause any problem. But the change that couldn’t convert the society fully lead to the interaction of various conservative ideologies which involve religion also. We could see some of the cause of problems faced by modern world there. So the mindset of human also has the effect of this partially.
And considering cultures it shapes a society and it’s effect has a big role. People from different regions may see things differently. For example some flower may be simply flower for someone and will be a way to express a feeling or even holly for someone else. This was the cause. But the effect is not much strong in the modern world as information technology such as internet reduced the distance not between continents but also between people. And the effect of personal background has a big role here. Think of Adolf Hitler, if he could achieve his childhood dream to be a painter the history of world would be something else. But his childhood experiences made a path to his future. So it is better to see each person in the light of his past, then everyone will have justifications.
Diversity as a Possibility and a Problem
What should we conclude from all of these? Is the diversity in human thoughts are a problem, and is there a need of uniform ideology in the this society? The answer is absolutely no. Because we are no more living in the dark ages of human society in which emperors and religion tried to eradicate the ideology that tend to question them. As we are in a modern society we have to make interaction among various streams and that is the way to create a better one. There is no idea which is absolutely good or wrong, it depends on the perspective of the viewer. And we have to give respect to others idea before we judge them , or if possible avoid judgements. So clearly only if diverse thoughts are present then only the world could go ahead. So thoughts have to be diverse and that is why our mindset evolved such that. This gives a system to see the same thing in different views and help it to reach the result as fast as possible. That is why groups became important.
Then unification of thoughts aren’t at all a solution and it will only make problem. Because in such a world there will be only white or dark. But even we can’t compare that. Simply think about a black and white TV. You can see the images because of the contrast between two colors. But if suddenly if we are deleting dark or white from that you can’t actually see anything, and you lost your vision on what you was watching. So a society with diverse thought is like a color TV, which is far more better and clearer than a black and white one. In a way democracy have the advantage of this. That the election is a result of all these diference. And in older days when a king or something else was controlling a geographical area there was only two or even one color. And this is one thing that actually make us “modern”.
Then what about the problems? Let us see what causes the problem. Consider the concept of truth . Many ancient texts had written and many still believe that there is an absolute truth. But truths are also relative. So a person cannot be perfect in every angle, which is an ideal cause. So at least he have to be perfect in his perspective, to be honest to himself. That is the maximum possible thing we can do. And the search of absolute truth with a conservative mind will only increase the problems. So it is important to have a relativistic mindset to see others. The issues that the world face now is the result of this, these problems include anti-social activities to terrorism. What actually happen there is something had succeeded in unifying the ideology in some conservative minds and what they see is only dark or only white. But they couldn’t even understand what it is actually. That is not a part of modern world.
Simply think about two people, one believe in an ideology blindly and other is not . According to the first one whenever one is in danger a force will always help him. And they were traveling in a boat across a river. suddenly the boat start sinking. The second man started swimming while the first was still sitting in the boat , waiting for the force. The river was flowing heavily and second man couldn’t reach to the first. Somehow second could reach to the land but was sad thinking about his friend. But the first was sinking happily. This is what the result of blind belief. So modern society have to avoid this kind of things not the diversity in thoughts. Because we want to improve our world.
Why we are following an idea?
Today world is full of ideologies and it’s followers. Actually we have to think one thing. Why we need an idea for following? We need that as we are interested in converting anything into or making new ideology in a view that it could make a better world. But is it actually doing that? For that we have to first look at the concept of believer or follower. Then only we can get what really an idea is why people gather around some point spaces in the world of ideas.
Simply a follower or believer is one who believing in an ideology, it can be ranging from social theories such as socialism to religion. Actually how does he started believing in ideas? The history also tells about this also. Because when he understood that nature is so powerful than he could control he started making thoughts about it, it turned to imagination and ultimately to the theme of religion. What we can see here is that in this one isn’t solving any problem , instead they are escaping from that by their belief. This is why followers are great in number. Because that provide them a space to get rid from the burden of their mind by their belief, and simply there is no magic in it. And it is more easy to remain as that. But a system which define people like this is passive, meaning it is not readily undergoing development or progressive change as the people included in it is not actively participating in such a process as they don’t want to alter the idea they believe. And it is what provide a comfort zone to them. So we have to approach any ideology that provide a comfort zone as it may convert an independent person into a believer. So as human usually doesn’t have a tendency to break that they will always remain there. This is how conservative thoughts still exist in modern society. The exceptions to these are great people who led the society to reality. But unfortunately people started building ideologies in their name and started following that and even believing them as Gods.
Think about what will happen if you are believing in an ideology. That is like a color filter . If it is before your eyes then you cannot see what is really in front of you in terms of color. This makes an isolation in thought process resulting in the formation of groups and they would contradict in some aspect. Here it is not at all a matter of personal perspective. Because such a thought could unify even that up to an extend as mentioned before.
So if you are following something you are actually stopping a dynamic thought process to a greater extend and trying to remain in a comfort zone. So a modern society need criticism not a mob which is blindly following an idea. But still we have no right to judge that as wrong. So it is important to be unique so that it is better to built your own idea which would make life easier than following anything.
Emotions, Feelings and Person
Each human has emotions and feelings. But one may think that why we have to think about that in this context. Yes, there is a need as we are talking about diversity in thought. Because these things are actually the effect of our social system and in most of the cause it’s moral values. So as we discussed before these values itself is relative. So in order to approach one thing properly, we first have to have a better understanding about our self. But here also unfortunately mostly we don’t know what we are. Yes, there is no wonder in it, one of the thing that mostly unknown for one is his or her self. Basically, as in the cause of truth, there is no absolute thing called personality. It’s all determined by time and space. So even we can only say a probability. And feelings have more importance when it comes in interactions and debates.
For getting a clear picture about the effect of time and space in personality, think about a youngster in this time and about 50 years before. And you can do the same translation for the point in space also. And ultimately what you could see is that it does effect a person, not only that it defines a person. So personality that we tought an important thing is derived from time and space! But does it mean that it isn’t important? Absolutely no, as it makes each person unique as also those points are unique. But what is hidden in this geometry is the relativistic nature of personality. So each of our decisions will have the same effect, which means one person is unique doesn’t imply there is no need for relativity but is to avoid comparison. So if we could understand this we could get a clearer picture of all things in which our coordinates will not come as a noise.
Feelings and emotions are a part of human nature. So we can’t avoid that. Does this is unique to human? Of course no, as we are looking to animal behavior similar things are exhibited by them also. It is a characteristic feature of the animal world and if you are closely watching others you may get more organisms in this. But why we say it as ‘human feeling’ or what makes the difference?
Basically, we have a picture of feelings that as aesthetic values in it. The feeling can not even the product of social interaction. But as we thought about it according to mankind it became unique and valuable and we started even building ideology on that. And it also included in culture. One of the classic example that we can point out is that of love. This feeling can be in different directions and not unique only to human. But there is a lot of values that we are given to this. That is only because we could easily think in the side of our society. But the same system doesn’t consider the relativistic effect and a majority explained it so. So at some point, people started believing that it is a universal truth. Of course, it is universal but one has to understand that it is a feeling.
The problem with all of these are most of the time a person even in modern society is affected by conservative thoughts because of these things, and it is difficult to get rid of it. And then most of the vision that you are getting will be altered by your own feelings. Think of a debate about morality. In that the arguments about a cause in which one person had done an antisocial act was going on. And what will happen there if the audience and the people involved in it is affected by feeling? The answer is simple, as feelings are also a product of the same society they would argue to give maximum punishment to them and if possible it will be death, despite of understanding that it is the defect of the system in which they are living. So as considering these effects, these make a society and a democratic system passive when we are unaware about it’s relativistic picture. So we have to be aware about our self for making better decision
abstract thoughts 