It is probably already quite clear from the previous blog posts and the book itself that I believe that a nurturing society represents a higher, more advanced level of civilization than nation states today, including modern Western democracies. Under a nurturing society I mean a society in which justice and humanity, rather than existential opportunism, are the main defining principles.
Accordingly, a nurturing society actively supports each individual member to find their place in the world and to fulfill themselves, while also enabling collective self-actualization for the whole of society, as well as the human race and the global civilization it has created. In such a society, there are no extreme inequalities, no famine, no homelessness, no people and families left to their own devices with serious problems, no children and young people who fall into hopelessness and are exploited by adults, nor manipulative and power-hungry factions that are constantly trying to undermine and obliterate each other. On the one hand, this requires a much stronger social safety net in our societies, even compared to countries that are considered to be performing well in this area. On the other, it is inevitable to review and reform the basic rules that govern us, which in turn starts with the recognition of our common values and interests.
I am all too aware that the image of such a society may seem utopian to many people today. In this respect, however, I do think that, for a long time, societies with today’s conditions, democracy, and much greater equality in terms of gender and race, had also seemed unattainable to the majority. On the other hand, it really all depends on what we consider important, where our priorities lie, which is always part of the culture of the moment. And with more people nowadays having access to higher education and a wealth of information than ever before, more and more of us now have the chance to live our lives more consciously – even if it is often the politically dependent education itself and the mass of uncontrolled or deliberately manipulated information thrown at us that distorts our reality.
Actually the reason behind this is also the fact that individual rather than communal prosperity and opportunism is the main driving force of our civilization. One cannot deny that competition is necessary at some level and can have positive benefits, so it is probably also essential to foster innovation and progress. At the same time, the dominance of existential opportunism cannot last indefinitely, neither in terms of environmental sustainability due to finite resources, nor in terms of social sustainability due to extreme inequality. (Since the idea of a consumer society based on continuous economic growth is fundamentally draining both people and the natural environment, it is also incompatible with the concept of a nurturing society.) But even leaving aside the now obvious environmental crisis, we must still recognize that the basic livelihood and well-being of people in a highly developed society should not be subject to contingency or opportunism. If only because what distinguishes truly civilized societies from less civilized ones and from Mother Nature is that the former is no longer governed by the law of the jungle.
For as long as we allow this to be the case, we will always live in hierarchical class societies, with structures like that of a pyramid, where in the ‘game of life’, few are the ones who win often and a lot, while the majority often lose and have no realistic chance of advancement. (But after all, where could they rise to if the pyramidal nature of the system means that only a few people can be near the top at any one time?) In such systems, a small minority always holds a large share of the wealth and power, while the interests of the majority are much less taken into consideration. Even though such a society may nominally define itself as a democracy, it is far from being a society of real equality of opportunity and justice.
In this respect, the biggest problem today is the atomization of our societies, whereby metropolitan lifestyles and high population density, the dominance of material goods and success-oriented, individualistic and hectic lifestyles fragment communities, fundamentally hindering their development. The creation and maintenance of functional communities, whether they are cultural or thematic communities (i.e. organized around different habits or interests), local communities, or a mix of the two, is therefore essential for change. It is also crucial that communities should be cooperative rather than competitive or hostile. And for democracy to really take hold in our societies, communities need to make the decisions, rather than handing them over to the opportunists standing above and between them.
To this end, we must do our utmost to establish and consolidate local self-government (preferably on a democratic basis), which must exist within a global hierarchy based on the principle of subsidiarity. A modern nurturing society is therefore not at all to be imagined as a paternalistic, all-powerful, top-down state – it is much rather an ideal based on community and cooperation between people, with empathy and organic solidarity as its main drivers. If we can make this the most important thing in our culture from an early age, then we can really have a chance to bring about qualitative change in our societies.
Instead of unnecessary and inhuman rivalries, hostilities and factionalizing based on national, racial, religious, economic and other grounds, we must focus on peaceful and productive coexistence and cooperation between our societies. Collective self-actualization should therefore be no more at the expense of others than individual self-actualization, and should always be in the interests of humanity as a whole, whether it be culture, sport, science, discovery or anything else. To do this, of course, it is essential to articulate and keep in mind our common values, in line with a reasonable respect for our priorities. But of all the aspects, the most important is probably the effective fight against existential opportunism and the containment of opportunists, because if that fails, there is no realistic chance for a nurturing society that protects the interests and growth of the majority.