Repressive Society

[andrewducker]

I believe that people have most of their social functioning built in at a genetic level. I recommend reading Stephen Pinker's "The Blank Slate" or John Gray's "Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and other Animals" for an overview of this take on things.

Because of this, I think that much of people's wants and needs is intrinsically part of them. I believe that most cultures try to funnel these inbuilt feelings in ways which protect the society. We take people's natural feelings on (for instance) sex and teach people that these feelings are wrong, or sick or dirty. Now, sometimes there are good reasons for the social structures to exist, and strong historical causes for them, but the fact remains that they are socially imposed on top of the instincts that people have. Frequently the mismatch causes psychological dysfunction, sometimes of a severe nature.

Now, the more free people feel from cultural pressure, the less attention they will pay to the attempts to change their intrinsic nature. Historically speaking, it has only been possible to be free if you were at the top of the heap - and even then you're obviously raised in the midst of the society and strongly imprinted by it. Look at the behaviour ot the Greeks and Romans at their height, or the nobility of Medieval times. More recently, as the general wealth of the populace has gone up, more and more people have been able to free themselves from their fellow man.

Now, obviously, there's been negative sides to that freeing: not knowing who your neighbours are, a feeling of isolation and anomie, no community culture. Of course, to those people who felt hemmed in by their surrounding society this is a good thing. And without those societal rules holding us back, we're more free to act as we wish and follow our instincts.

Of course, I'm overegging this somewhat - we're all very much influenced by our societies, picking up our basic beliefs and our "starter pack" of morals and tastes from there. But it is startling how much society has changed over the last century. Believe it or not, 100 years ago a woman could be arrested in London for wearing trousers in public. 30 years ago they were still using electroshock therapy to try and cure homosexuals in the UK. Now, both of those ideas seem ludicrous. But they only seem ludicrous because we see other people as independent. And people are much more indepedent nowadays because they can be self-supporting.

Comments

[andrewducker]

I'd like to make it very clear that I am not 100% genetic determinist. I believe that genetics is a component of our makeup, but I also strongly believe in cultural affects. My point wasn't supposed to be "genetics good, culture bad", but rather "some cultures control more than others, and modern western culture controls less than most, therefore it seems logical to me than people's innate natures will come to the fore more in a modern westwen culture."

Of course, the cultures I'm comparing it to are the vastly repressive ones that (for instance) include female circumcision, or hide their women away or have very strong social rules about everything (see Victorian England or some Islamic countries).

My understanding of psychology shows extremely strong effects from the chemicals floating around in our brains and bloodstream. One of the main causes of which chemicals are where is our genetics. Another is our diet. Another is the situation we're in. All of these have strong effects on who we are.