Social Authority or Self Sovereignty?

Posted on May 11, 2008
Filed Under Awareness, Fake Culture, Society |

Retaining our individuality sometimes seems to be a very difficulty thing to do. I mean first of there is the whole deal about identity! Without a sense of identity it is all but impossible to remain / become an ‘individual’…or is it? It really, very much depends upon what we constitute as ‘identity’. More and more so in recent years, the concept of identity is strongly associated with the wiles of materialism. Most people are aware of that, and most probably agree - even whilst feeling that this is the natural way of things.

The measure of a modern life is often believed to be found in a persons career, material possessions and social status. Ultimately this is a form of ’social authority’, that is to say; an individuals identity is dictated by societies perceived symbols of power. Money is an obvious symbol of perceived power (status), but so too is that car or your iPod.

Where then, is ‘identity’ found within those symbols? Why is identity measured by external properties? If we look at a tree, or a river the identity of these things is found within their own unique properties. We don’t identify with a tree by comparing it to a plant or a weed, its identity is found within its own innate values. Yet we do not carry this same principle over to ourselves.

I suspect much of this is due to the fact that our physical senses are always looking outwards. Meanwhile we are dependant upon our internal senses - such as thought and emotion - to report to us about ourselves. Unfortunately whilst much of our social education teaches us to use our senses to relate to the world around us, we are taught little to nothing of how to understand and relate to ourselves. This leads to a natural disparity - because under such education we come to think of the world in terms of external values - we objectify everything. It’s a hard lesson to learn to realise that objectification does not apply to our inner world / self.

But this can be turned around, once we realise that much of society is based upon the externalisation of our fears and prejudices. After all society has become more focused upon the structures of nationalism, than the needs of people and community. This is what results when for too long, a population constantly focuses outwardly. In a world of machines, systems, computers and objects - eventually people come to see themselves as a part of that mechanistic structure. This is the power of social authority taken to the nth degree, as ultimately even the concept of ‘authority’ becomes something external to the individual - something unimaginably large, ubiquitous and mechanistic.

As a civilisation we have finally begun to objectify (and thus separate) the notions of individual, people and society. These are no longer seen as one and the same. And as we globally continue our seeming fall into a pit of madness, we even objectify ourselves - we don’t feel ourselves walking around - so much as imagine ourselves walking around on some imaginary TV show, or stage.

How far will we carry this dissociation?

It seems to me, that the trick is to not get caught up in this global mess. That if we so wish, we can once again find ourselves through self-sovereignty by de-coupling ourselves not from society but from the mechanistic idea of society. We can find our own values of measure by looking within, because in the end - this is a subjective world and the only way to understand subjectivity is to begin by understanding ourselves.