We are born knowing nothing of this world. Babies cradled by their mothers, but fathered by their societies. As we grow up we are battered by this society, shaped and moulded into a doctrine of sorts, an ideal human being.
Although, we are far from ideal. What we are raised to give to society is a necessity for survival imposed by the same society. We are educated, in many ways; enforced to learn, so that we might serve society, and be independent when we grow up. But what is really fundamental for our existence? What is important in society for it to flourish?
What a human being really wants as it grows up depends on what it was taught to desire. Society is an emergent property of a population containing different ideologies and moral values. However, its aim is to have control over the population and maintain peace within it. Without order, there would be no society or stable population. Thus, the only stable population that has managed to exist for so long, is in fact the society that we see today. It might change with time, such as creatures change with time, so does society evolve to adapt to different needs.
Human nature has always been societal. This is seen in social behaviour of primates, where they live in hierarchies. We thus tend to live in such social structures because we have evolved to do so. Without social groups, early primates would have never evolved and became human beings. It is in groups that language, religion, politics, music, agriculture and so much other fundamental aspects of human life developed.
Today, we are born in a society that imposes us to learn the accumulated knowledge of two thousand years of human history. Even though the bare minimum for existence is food, water and shelter, our needs have escalated drastically to accommodate the needs of our society. We as humans work for the society such that it can provide us with our individual needs; food, water, shelter, entertainment.
But what real values do the needs of the society have? If we place a hypothetical human in a cottage far flung into the wilderness and give him all the knowledge necessary to survive indefinitely on his own, would he live his entire life around the cottage; hunting, gathering and maintaining his household? Or will he venture to seek the societal life? Naturally, humans tend to want to live in groups, so he would probably venture from his home and become nomadic. The nomadic life has been what made humans so successful. For it enabled us to conquer the four corners of the Earth. But travelling is not just to seek other human contact, but also because of the need to avoid it.
When the social group becomes vastly large, and resources are limited, the group will split. In our modern times, societies are over-exceedingly large but resources are not limited, in a sense. The limiting resource of today would be work, for with work we can provide ourselves with the resources necessary for life; food, water and shelter. So why do we still feel like wanting to split from our social group?
This all boils down to what makes human beings happy. Happiness is an emotion expressed by not just human beings. Advanced, quasi-concious or concious animals demonstrate happiness in many forms. Chimpanzees will laugh when playing and smile like humans. Dolphins and whales will sing and swim around each other and jump out of the water. Dogs will waggle their tails and bark when presented with food or when they see their owners.
But what really is happiness? We might define it as our 'needs catered for'. We are happy when we have food to eat every day. We are happy when we have a home to go to. We are happy when we have a mate to sleep and live with. These are all natural needs closely entwined within our evolutionary history.
So is the modern human being happy within his society? To answer this question, we cannot take one human being as an example. There are different cases and castes within our society. But if we take a hypothetical human that has a work that is enough for him to live independently and be self-sufficient, that is, he can cater for food, water and shelter, then would this human be happy?
Presumably, the human would tend to want to find a mate and live with him/her. This is a natural instinct, and accepted. To live as two, requires both partners to either be self-sufficient, or one of them can provide for the other. Then again, if this criteria is met, will they be happy?
The couple would have grown up to want technology, things to amuse itself with. It would want material objects to fulfil its lust for wanting more. But why would this be so? Naturally, animals would spend most of their time hunting for food. In humans, food, water and shelter have become so easily obtainable, that a lot of our waking hours are empty. What this means is that we have a lot of free time to do whatever we want.
In the past, the human beings with access to freely available food, water and shelter, made available through agriculture, used their time to develop our society. They had time to invent mathematics, this was used for so many things. They had time to invent philosophy, religion and politics. With these, the satiated humans could control their ever growing population and maintain a group fit enough for survival.
With time the knowledge base of humans increased because they had the time to study their surrounding, this became known as science. Humans invented ways to entertain and spend their free time. They created games, social events, music. Communication was important, and even though it was developed early on in music, this grew over the years. Instead of communication, music and writing - such as in books and stories - became a way to entertain their group and feel connected with one another.
Nowadays, these complex emergent properties of the social group and the consequence of the abundance of resources necessary for physical growth, created a complex society in which many aspects, seen from an outside perspective, make no sense in the survival of the group and individuals themselves.
Our hypothetical human from the beginning, would live a 'happy' life alone or with a mate in a cottage in the wilderness, but the majority of humans today are born in a system which does not allow the chance to do so. However, without such social system, the number of human beings would have never been this large, and the chances of mental development haltered by the lack of resources.
As such, our imprisonment in society is a direct consequence of our same freedom to learn and develop methods to sustain ourselves. At some point in the past, the intelligent humans outsourced themselves and cascaded into a developmental vortex of the individual and the social that would eventually result in our modern society. Our society would not exist, and neither would we, if it wasn't the way it was. It is a consequence of how our ancestors evolved to best survive their environment.
There are, however, ways and means to counter our apparent societal bind. Firstly, we must learn the limits within which we are born to live in. Only then can we surmount personal struggles, like the search for self-freedom and happiness. When we can clearly see our place in the society we are born in, we can find hidden tracks and secrets to fulfil ourselves.
Be it walking in a valley and looking at flowers or cuddling your pet dog, or reminiscing about the past with your grandfather or having fun with your friends, these are some of the social aspects which make us happy and which we tend to forget most about. It is our duty to fill the free time given to us in ways to enrich ourselves as human beings. To become altruistic and free. Freedom is the chance that has been given to us to live. Freedom is life itself. Our exponential population growth has given the chance for billions of other people to experience life.
Only by living will the baby that knows nothing about the world come into existence. It is only by living that the baby can learn about the flowers of the valley and their colours. Only by living will he be ever able to love and enjoy play.
Society is therefore not a curse, but a consequence of our freedom, and freedom, or life, is a consequence of society. It is in realising this fact that we can truly be happy with the lives we are living.
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