Society

The relationship between people and society is symbiotic; each party depends on the other to properly function. The people need society for the sole purpose of organization; they need a system which creates order from the chaos that is a human life. Society provides a structure upon which people can rely with great certainty. Society was there yesterday, it is there today, and it will be there tomorrow. It is also necessary for humans to interact with each other, and these interactions are regulated and stimulated by society. We obviously need to get most, if not all, of our food from others. We usually buy the food using a currency created by society from stores, a societal establishment. Our dependence on order, structure, and permanence explain our strong reliance on society.

On the other hand, society relies on people for a very simple reason: it consists of people. Something cannot exist without the major component of which it consists. For example, water cannot exist without hydrogen molecules since water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. The structure, society, depends on the building blocks, people, to exist.

This symbiotic relationship results in a give and take relationship known as the social contract. The people adhere to society’s rules as long as these rules are reasonable, but the social contract fails when the rules become unreasonable and unpleasant. However, the laws must be unjust to a point at which most of the people agree that they are not fair. It must require a large majority to overturn this social contract. For instance, during the reign of Louis XVI in France, the peasants, approximately 97% of the population, overthrew the monarchy and replaced it with their own form of government. In this case, the people decided that the law created by their society and government and society were not sufficient, so they did not obey the rules.

The Result of Introspection and Pessimism

To know myself means to know all of my flaws, strengths, and my purpose in life. Understanding why I am on this Earth is a huge step in knowing who I am. Of course I know little reasons why I am here, such as to make people laugh and to support my friends, but until I understand what my overall goal is and how it will affect the people around me, I will not know myself. Having this knowledge would benefit me mainly because it would provide a reason to wake up in the morning and drive me to succeed at everything I do. Knowing every aspect of myself, the way I think, and the way I can improve myself would enable me to become a better person and better the world.

One way I could improve myself is by strengthening my ability to compartmentalize. I believe that my greatest weakness is that I allow my emotions to consume me and hinder my progress. I have been really upset this past week, which is the main reason I am writing this blog Sunday night an hour and a half before it is due. I am not able to tell myself that I can be sad later, but now is the time to work. To develop this skill, I have worked very hard to stop thinking about my problems. I have been faking how I feel and putting a smile on for the rest of the world, which surprisingly helps me think about the task at hand rather than the problems that are present.

This contrasts interestingly with my greatest strength, my ability to make people happy. In all honesty, I am very good at cheering people up and using my humor to pull people out of the gutter. I work very hard to make people laugh, mainly because I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing other people happy, and I often raise the spirits of my friends when they need it most. The irony is that my greatest weakness prevents me from helping myself when I am upset.

It is very difficult for me to admit this information because I have been trained by my peers to despise myself. Although this is largely do to myself, my classmates have made me feel bad whenever I do well, causing a self-deprecating attitude. I am very self-conscious that people will think I am conceited when I say the slightest compliment towards myself.  Therefore my automatic response to the question, “What is your greatest flaw?” is “everything.” On the other hand, it is very difficult to pinpoint my strengths when I do not view myself to have strengths. This introspection is very difficult do to my societal pressures and fear of rejection by my peers. It makes me uncomfortable to write about why I am so great because this involves a level of self-confidence which I am yet to reach. This could in fact rival my inability to compartmentalize as my greatest weakness. The only reason it is not, in my eyes, my greatest flaw is because so many other people are unable to muster the confidence to speak honestly about themselves. It is such a common flaw that I think it is almost guaranteed that the majority of teenagers feel this way.