WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL SOCIETY ?

What Is A Successful Society :

 like clockwork .

I say :"These society is successful ."Instantly,a coterie of people appears and rises to objections.ONE:"that society is not successful !Its not perfect !"TWO :"That society is not successful! No society can be !"

Lets unpack these for a minute,because it will teach us something interesting .

There are three ways to judge a thing .The first is the Platonic way:We compare it to an ideal .We do this with people      and it poisons our relationships .We do it with societies      and this is the leftist objection :no society live up to my platonic ideal,thus no society can be successful .

The second way is the Hegelian way:we compare a thing to its antithesis,We do this with ourselves      and it damages our sense of self worth : I am not as good as them ,they are the positive of me ,rich,pretty,handsome,famous and so on .We do it with societies ,too.This is the rightist objection :no society is as good as if could be if it was something else ,a kingdom ,a jungle ,a family ,some kind of antithesis of a society,therefore no society can be successful .

Do you see the illogic of both these positions ? The leftist compares society to a platonic ideal ,and finds it ever wanting .The rightist compares society to a Hegelian antithesis ,and finds it ever wanting .They are answering the questions "is a society perfect?"or "is a society better off being something else?".But neither of these questions are relevant to "is a society successful?".What is the right way to answer that question ?

The third way to judge a thing is neither Platonic nor Hegelian but Aristotelian. Not to compare it to an ideal,or to an antithesis,but to understand if it is fully realizing itself.How are we to do that for a society ? How can we say a society is successful at being a society ?Not a jungle,an airport ,or an eclair,but a society.

We must look at reality to see if a thing is successful at being itself .Not at ideals or ideas or theories ,which cannot tell us anything about that,but reality.But which reality should we look at?Can we say there is such a thing as objective reality,socially speaking?Sure we can.Some societies are indeed objectively more successful then others :we can say this with empirical confidence.Do not take my word for it :take the facts.

The facts are simple.Societies like Sweden,Canada,Australia are more successful then societies like the US.At what?At being Societies. No:not perfect.But more successful at what societies exist to do:deliver social goods, that allow people to enjoy genuinely prosperous lives .How do we know?Objective reality tells us so in hem,people live longer ,enjoy their lives more,have greater opportunities,face fewer insecurities,and so on the list is nearly endless,and you can edit it as you see fit.

The problem of the leftist and the rightist is that they are not concerned with objective reality. They are only concern with subjective reality. Whose?Theirs.They compare society to their platonic ideal,their Hegelian antithesis,remember.But that is not your ideal,or mine.What is lost in this foolish game of not understanding how to assess the success of a society at being a society?Not a jungle,a platonic ideal,a castle in the sky,or a perfect panacea,remember?We lose sight of what a society exists to be.

No.a society is not an objective reality . It has no substance , no form. It is not a mountain or a river . It is more like a cloud. It is just agreements and norms and unsaid contracts . And yet. It is for precisely that reason that we can validate its success objectively. They must have a function ,must they not ?A society is not an objective reality ,but the function,the telos , Th purpose of a society most assuredly is.

The function of a society is expending human potential.And that is what a society is successful at,or not:expending or limiting human potential . And that is what a society is successful at being a society when it expends human potential.

What then is human potential ? Its very simple,is not it ? My potential is to live a few decades, to contribute something to you , to feel that my life has had some meaning, and that die a good death . Th at is all, no more and no less. And yet, if I can not even reach that potential if I die young , because I have no healthcare , If I contribute nothing because I have no education , money, or time , then my life has failed . To what ?To amount to one that is well lived.

And that brings us full circle . The correct way to judge a society’s success is not platonic , nor Hegelian , but Aristotelian . Is it successful as being itself ?The answer to the question "What make a society successful as being a society " is very simple. Are people living genuinely well , or not? Not : are they kardashians and Trumps ? But : are they fully and genuinely themselves ? Have they realized life itself to the highest and fullest degree whether we measure it in years , accomplishments,happiness or otherwise ?

Judgment is an ugly thing. It cheats us of love and awareness and genuine understanding . And yet we must judge if we are to act in this little life .

The great tragedy of the extremists, leftist and rightists both, ultimately, is this : in final judgement, not true wisdom, they place themselves above everyone else. And thus deny the very possibilities at all. And that is why they cannot understand what makes a society successful. It is not about them at all. It is about us, and whether we become who we were meant to be .

BAREERA MEHMOOD: