Even the most wretched individual of our present society could not exist and develop without the cumulative social efforts of countless generations. Thus the individual, his freedom and reason, are the products of society, and not vice versa: society is not the product of individuals comprising it; and the higher, the more fully the individual is developed, the greater his freedom — and the more he is the product of society, the more does he receive from society and the greater his debt to it.
quote by Mikhail Bakunin
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Even the most wretched individual of our present society could not exist and develop without the cumulative social efforts of countless generations.
quote by Mikhail Bakunin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There Is No Such Thing As An Individual
She looked at me
and asked.
'What is your answer? '
I was startled
and caught up short.
Simple question.
But I did not know
what the answer was.
'Who am I'?
I blurted out
vying for time;
I gave her my name
narrowing it to the millions
of Jim Jones in the world.
But am I my name?
She said
What else.?
'I am Hedi's Father
and Lisa's husband'
but before this response rolled away
into silence
I knew it wasn't enough.
So who else?
'I like hockey' I said
and knew even this
fell short.
How do I single out
the Me among millions?
What could I say
without out offering
fingerprints or DNA?
What would you say?
Maybe I should have given her
an address.
Only I live there.
But my address
is not my essence.
So who
in fact
is the I-
the me,
that I see-
as individual
and precious?
I really didn't
at that point
have an answer.
What about achievements?
.
How many individuals have
my job
and my name?
Fewer still.
This at least narrows it.
But then
the thought came;
I am not an individual.
I am the Me that
has a family and a history
a genealogy;
only me
has that.
I am not an individual
but a person
who can be identified
in the web of relationships
which surround me;
have surrounded me;
which in the end
have defined me.
I am not an individual.
I am all the people who
have influenced me-
nurtured me been kind to me or hurtful.
So there is then
this myth of the individual
which is not so.
But if this is not true
is it not so that much
of society and indeed Democracy itself
is premised
on the creating the conditions
for individual expression;
individual growth?
Is this premise correct
and the individual lives;
or is it that more real
is society and social relationships.?
So which is which?
But then again, one cannot touch society.
Confusing no?
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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The need to speak the truth and even to seek it for oneself is only conceivable in so far as the individual thinks and acts as one of a society, and not of any society … but of a society founded on reciprocity and mutual respect, and therefore on cooperation.
quote by Jean Piaget
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Low Society
A judge a dentist or physician
In this low society
Trade ambition for position
In this low society
Have you heard its in the stars
Next july we collide with mars
Have you heard it in the bars
In this low society
No more pay and lots of leisure
In this low society
Low society
Im just doing what I can
In this low society
But Im an incidental man
In this low society
I give away what others sell
The secrets yours so never tell
cos if you do youll go to hell
Low society
Side by side and always tired
All for one and no-one hired
All thats left is love inspired
Low society
And when the party is complete
And youre still standing on your feet
The taste of victory is sweet
Low society
And darling dont forget
In this low society
To turn off your t.v. set
In this low society
The most important thing at all
In this low society
Is not to stand too tall
In this low society
In this world that never learns
I can see rome as it burns
All the passion and the power
Turns to ash within an hour
No more play and no more pleasure
In this low society
song performed by by Heaven 17
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The point I am making is that in the more primitive forms of society the individual is merely a unit; in more developed forms of society he is an independent personality.
quote by Herbert Read
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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No taste without society
A society is
An army wherein each one
Is an unchained slave.
A society is
A fortress in which each one
Is under the siege.
A society is
A kennel wherein the pair
Is in surveillance.
A society is
A prison with prisoners
Kept in unshackled.
Without society,
Pride and prejudice will fail
To add to one's taste.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar (22 March 2012)
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Superficial Society
So I'm not good enough to hang out with your friends
You say it's a bluff, it's no lie
You want to be cool and hang with both sides
But what would they say, I'm the fool
It's a superficial society
It's a bunch of bullshit can't you see
Why wouldn't you wake up to reality
I guess backstabbing ain't the way of life for me
Open your mind and close your eyes
To the things that really persist
It's not your hair or the things you wear
That makes someone socially exist
It's hard to find yourself sometimes
Around the people with a cool policy
Why don't you let yourself unwind
And leave that lame society
Superficial society
Superficial society
Superficial society
It's all superfical to me
Superficial society
Superficial society
song performed by by Unwritten Law
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A wretched society
A wretched society-
I don’t sing love;
Instead I chant Krishn.
I don’t play romance;
Instead, I dance as Radha.
A wretched society-
I don’t keep men’s photos;
Instead, I keep their gifts.
I don’t befriend men;
Instead, I visit their wives.
A wretched society-
I don’t move with men;
Instead, I acquaint with cousins.
I don’t seek heroes;
Instead, I frequent seers.
A good daughter, a good sister,
A chaste wife, a good mother,
And a woman of modesty,
I have lived me to my peril.
A wretched society.
04.02.2005
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Morning Thoughts
a true education
reveals the sameness
in the human condition.
a free society
allows the individual
to be individual.
a real community
is as responsible
for the least as for
the most...
the concept of freedom
becomes a reality
when based in mutual respect.
equality demands
equal effort!
how hard is this
for us to understand?
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Society is the fear.
You don’t love your society
And yet you show your smile
Out of fear rather than love
Like a slave’s love for his master.
Without society, you have no pride.
With society, you have no freedom.
In both ways, you are miserable.
09.05.2001, Pmdi
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.
quote by Jean de la Bruyere
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In the long run, a society's strength depends on the way that ordinary people voluntarily behave. Ordinary people matter because there are so many of them. Voluntary behavior matters because it is hard to supervise everyone all the time. … Successful societies — those which progress economically and politically and can control the terms on which they deal with the outside world— succeed because they have found ways to match individual self-interest to the collective good. The behavior that helps each person will, as a cumulative ethos, help the society as a whole.
quote by James Fallows
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Marx, as we have seen, solved it by declaring capital to be a different thing from product, and maintaining that it belonged to society and should be seized by society and employed for the benefit of all alike.
quote by Benjamin Tucker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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That's Our Society
Cries,
Screams,
Tears,
Anarchy.
That's our society.
Pure hate,
Heartless souls,
Numb,
Prejudice.
That's our society.
Unwanted,
Vacant,
Deserted,
Plain.
That's our society.
Conformity,
Pain,
Death,
War.
That's our society.
It makes it seem like it's
Not where you'd want to
Be placed, doesn't it?
poem by Melissa Joy Chesky
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Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships.
quote by Rick Santorum
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society.
quote by Natan Sharansky
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bow And Arrow
this is the metaphor
of society
the greater the
opposition
of the bow
to the arrow
the farther the
travel
take note
a society of
yes men
arrives
at nothing
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Freedom is inseparable from conscience. And even if it is true that all the ideas developed by the social consciousness are the product of evolution, conscience at least has nothing to do with the historic process. Conscience, both as a sense and as a concept, is a priori immanent in man, and shakes the very foundations of the society that has emerged from our ill-conceived civilisation.
quote by Andrei Tarkovsky
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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In a higher phase of communist society... only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
We human beings are what we have been for millions of years — colossally greedy, envious, aggressive, jealous, anxious and despairing, with occasional flashes of joy and affection. We are a strange mixture of hate, fear and gentleness; we are both violence and peace. There has been outward progress from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically the individual has not changed at all, and the structure of society throughout the world has been created by individuals. The outward social structure is the result of the inward psychological structure of our human relationships, for the individual is the result of the total experience, knowledge and conduct of man. Each one of us is the storehouse of all the past. The individual is the human who is all mankind. The whole history of man is written in ourselves.
quote by Krishnamurti
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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