Quotes About Society

Émile Durkheim, the father of modern sociology, said that when societies hit a civilisational break the suicide rate soars.

The historian must have some conceptions of how men who are not historians behave.

It is not that the Englishman can't feel-it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks-his pipe might fall out if he did.

One of my great pleasures from the study of investing, finance, and economics is the discovery of insights about people and society. The physical sciences have rules such as the law of gravitation that generally hold true in the world as we know it. But human beings and the way they interact aren't covered by broad, unchanging theories and may never be. Instead I've come across more limited concepts that tie things together and serve as shortcuts to understanding.

In a typical life cycle, prior to adulthood we consume more than we produce. As we acquire education and training, we contribute more to society than it takes to support us. During this period, a prudent or fortunate investor will accumulate wealth from which to draw upon later as he ages and reduces his income from work.

Here indeed is a major difference between people and ants: where we send our young men to war, ants send their old ladies. No moral lesson there, unless you are looking for a less expensive form of elder care.

A society that condemns homosexuality harms itself. (254)

Human beings and their social orders are intrinsically imperfectible and fortunately so. In a constantly changing world, we need the flexibility that only imperfection provides.

To give in completely to the instinctual urgings born from individual selection would be to dissolve society. At the opposite extreme, to surrender to the urgings from group selection would turn us into angelic robots—the outsized equivalents of ants.

to get hold of the human condition, we need next a much broader definition of history than is conventionally used.

We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.

For most of history, organized religions have claimed sovereignty over the meaning of human existence. For their founders and leaders the enigma has been relatively easy to solve. The gods put us on Earth, then they told us how to behave. Why should people around the world continue to believe one fantasy over another out of the more than four thousand that exist on Earth? The answer is tribalism

Much of culture, including especially the content of the creative arts, has arisen from the inevitable clash of individual selection and group selection.

eusociality, the most advanced state of social behavior

States, the final step up in the cultural evolution of societies, have a centralized authority.

Los seres humanos y sus órdenes sociales son intrínsecamente imperfectos, por suerte. En un mundo en constante cambio, necesitamos la flexibilidad que solo la imperfección proporciona.

True character arises from a deeper well than religion. It is the internalization of moral principles of a society, augmented by those tenets personally chosen by the individual, strong enough to endure through trials of solitude and adversity. The principles are fitted together into what we call integrity, literally the integrated self, wherein personal decisions feel good and true. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others.

We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.

Human nature is deeper and broader than the artificial contrivance of any existing culture.

The right of dissent, or, if you prefer, the right to be wrong, is surely fundamental to the existence of a democratic society. That's the right that went first in every nation that stumbled down the trail toward totalitarianism.

Only two industries refer to their customers as 'users': computer design and drug dealing

It can't be easy, living in the park." "Maybe it was a greater effort being who he was.

Musical myths speak with authority about our society, its fragility, its strengths, its desires, and its limits. Music becomes a wise version of the utopian messenger, pleasing us with his account of an ideal land but also warning us, in his tones, of all the dangers.

The steady advance, and cultural power, of marketing and advertising has caused "the displacement of a political public sphere by a depoliticized consumer culture."21