Margaret Thatcher was right about Society

“There is no such thing as society, [just] individual men and women, and families . . “, she is reported to have said.

This is pretty much the basis on which western civilisation is organised. And that’s the PROBLEM, because we evolved to survive and “succeed”, not as individuals or single families, but as part of a larger society, i.e. tribe or nation.

What is referred to as “society”, notwithstanding its vital social importance, is in fact far more an “artificial human environment” (of niches, resources and markets), the self-exploitation of which, state and economy developed over the centuries to facilitate, mainly, but not exclusively, to the advantage of power, wealth and privilege (including academics, favoured professions, and everyone who is anyone in the media, politics, the church and business).

State and economy do serve us, of course, and we are all completely dependent on them, which deludes us into seeing this as their primary purpose, but in fact only as a shepherd serves his flock, which is not primarily for the flock’s sake (notwithstanding any genuine concern for a lost or injured lamb), but for his own and/or his employer’s sake, for the meat and wool the flock provides and can be exchanged at market for MONEY.

This is the core of my human-evolutionary, i.e. Darwinian, approach to understanding human “society” and its ills, which I’m still developing on this and other blogs, and could do with some academic help in expanding upon.