Driving forces in society

From the book “Holistic Society”

The driving force is the main reason to do or not to do something. It is the highest purpose around which we live in a certain way and which indicates what our system of values is. It lies behind our motivation to have a specific job, to communicate and to be with particular people, to educate ourselves, to choose entertainments and so on. It sets our attitude towards life, towards people, towards ourselves, towards God… towards everything. The driving force is our main source of energy and it predetermines our path of life, if we are following it. Therefore, if we know what our driving force is as individuals and as a society, we will be able to see the main direction in our life and to know what lies in front of us. For a civilization the driving force shapes the stimulus which the ruling classes encourage among the ruled. It is present in all relationships and it is the cornerstone around which every civilization builds itself. The better we know it, the clearer we will be able to outline the positive and negative consequences that result from it. The driving force predetermines the path of development of the society. Very often people are not fully aware of their motivation for certain behavior, but a simple observation and an honest evaluation of their actions will reveal it easily. Absorbed by a variety of problems, many people are unable to see the directions of different social groups and society in general. If there is not in unison between the ethics of an individual and of society an existential dilemma arises for a person: to redirect a particular collective, or to detach from it, in order to preserve individual integrity. Beside the period of emerging and developing of a certain community or a whole civilization, the driving force predetermines also the periods of decay, which signifies the necessity of transformation and internal reorganization of the community. We can bring out two general and diametrically opposing driving forces which are present in the life of every person and every society. The first is the service to self and the second – service to whole.

Service to the Self

The building of a society which is developing (or degrading), led by the service to self as its main driving force is a conscious, purposeful and traceable process which forms the main social relationships in the past millenniums until present day. This driving force is present into politics, international relations, economics, healthcare systems, education, jurisdiction, religion and so on. Every religious, political, economic or other form of social organization which instills fear for survival and encourages particular behavior with material rewards or provision of status, while regulating unwanted behavior with sanctions is a type of system in service to self – egoistic system. This conclusion is evident because it is relied on encouraging or restraining certain behavior of an individual or a group of people by influencing their ego and not by using measures for supporting the process of becoming aware of the consequences from their actions for the whole environment. One of the easiest ways to determine whether a social system is in the service to self is to look at the principles of distribution of the goods between its members. If they are allocated as a form of reward and deprived as a form of sanction, we can conclude that this is an egoistic system, because the management affects the ego of a person or an organization. All presently enforced legal systems, most of the major religions and all capitalistic economy are functioning in the service to self. The domination of this driving force in our world is so total, that a person can be easily deceived that other motivation, other principle are unsustainable and different order will be impossible to last. The most propagandized untruth in these systems is that egoism and self-interest are the deepest motivators for development and this attitude is maintained for thousands of years. Significant part of the people who have preserved their humane attitudes and who are still capable to love, are reluctantly participating in an egoistic system mainly for two reasons: The first is because there is not an alternative proposal of a system in service to the whole and the second is that the goods that they are receiving for their work can be used for supporting close relatives and for the material secure of desired projects. Therefore, for this large group of people this participation is a compromise in which there is major ideological conflict, and not a choice, based of common principles for development. The acceptance of this delusion that egoism is the strongest motivator for an absolute and irrefutable thesis premised limited set of instruments for leading the society. Their main characteristic is that they are influencing the ego of its members which leads to obscurity of the aims of the community. This leads to gradual social self-destruction, confining of the worldview and mutual alienation between the members of the society. These methods and instruments for influence are examined separately in the following chapters. Typical features are that often they are primitive, rude, illogical, restrictive to the freedom of the individual, even when his actions are directed towards positive changes in the society and will lead to harmonious creative expressions. The end wall of the prison in which the self-serving societies are becoming is the lack of feeling for purpose to live and not understanding the reason behind every form of social organizing. The egoistic social systems are placing survival as an end itself and as main purpose for participation in social relationships. This exact characteristic is present in all self-serving societies and it is the basis of transforming their members to become indifferent towards others, inhumane and competitive. The irony of the rhythm of functioning of every self-serving system is that its values and actions which are meant to protect it at all costs are leading to its self-annihilation. The reason is that the subjects in the system who are achieving dominant position are realizing at certain point that they have become prisoners too and they are turning against it and all the subjects in it. If the rulers realize that their true purpose is to transform the system to a one that is in service to the whole, or to free its members to be included in such system, a lot of suffering can be prevented. Despite the fact that survival is pointed as a main objective for all participants in these systems, it should be also at expense of others and the surrounding environment. The system is presented to people only as a protector of society which can be true, if the relationships are constructed to serve the interest of the whole. When this is not done, it becomes the catalyst for the biggest conflicts and the cause of uncertainty and insecurity for the people. The declared ideals for humanism, higher ethics and equality have become empty slogans. The methods for governing inside an egoistic system include violation of rights of one ideal in order to protect another. An example is the violation of human rights of one group of people with the aim to increase the security of another. The state is system of service to self which requires from its citizens to be obedient to its organs. Every participant has different value to the system and he is used for its stable existence. The legal order of the state functions as outside will imposed to the citizens which should be followed by them. Failure to fulfill it leads to repressive sanctions, which are always aimed at the rights of the disturber and almost always does not lead to change of his behavior patterns. The worldview which is maintained for the person about himself is that he is insignificant particle of dust in the system which gathers more value, if he makes others dependent from him. In economic relationships we see this principle among the private corporations which have to create dependence of the consumers to their products. The employees of the corporations who are realizing that in the present moment their needed by the organization are negotiating for a better remuneration, using the circumstance that their labor is needed. Political leaders are acquiring social weight not because they have reasonable solutions for specific social issues and a vision for development, but because they are able to gather electorate, without regards what is their political message. The principle of being valued because you are making others dependent by yourself is truthful also in promoting of religions. A religion is becoming socially acceptable and traditional, depending on the number of its followers, without regards how its doctrine is affecting them. In order the governing methods which are influencing the ego of a person to be effective, it is necessary that he is raised to identify himself only by its ego. This will predetermine the direction for his search for happiness and how to find meaning of his life by focusing predominantly on the economic wealth and abilities to gain status in society. The ability of a person to find a higher purpose in the affirmation of intransitive humanistic and ecological values is seen as weakness and naivety in the egoistic system, because he will not take full advantage to exploit certain situation. The true reason for stimulating this driving force is, because when it becomes leading for the participants in the system, they are losing their sense of higher purpose and meaning of life and become maneuverable as pawns on a checkerboard. Their abilities to make a positive change in society are progressively reduced. The more a person or an organization adopts the self-service as a leading driving force, the more they are detaching themselves from their humanity and higher purpose of existence. In the end the person or the organization, accepting the ethics of the egoistic system forget or neglect the natural, decent attitude towards other beings, including the planet. Every individual and every collective that do not have the sense of unity with all others, despite their differences, and who are living just for their survival, are used for someone’s selfish interests. Therefore, the suggestion that the most important direction for development is the selfish one is a subtle form of control over all participants in the system. This control is not necessary to be applied through the legal authority of a particular institution, but consists of maintaining attitudes and social model in which different communities are not able to find a common ground for cooperative co-existence. When the participants in any social system are convinced that they should be guided by their self-interest and be prepared to disregard the interests of others, their behavior is always becoming harmful for the whole environment. The ego, understood as a form which protects individual identity from the outer world, is not problematic as itself. Its balanced development is an absolute necessity for every individual and every organization in order to think themselves as separate, autonomous and protected reality. The biggest issue, which breeds the driving force of service to self, is placing the ego in the center of the person’s existence, because this leads to assimilation of the environment to the one’s ego. The result is reaching an extremely selfish attitude which blinds the person about the problems that he is creating and about the optimal solutions for them. Even if the interests of others are understood, they are neglected or used for taking advantage from the respective subject. The stimulation of this driving force among all participants in egoistic system leads to injection of the environment and turning it in a zone for rivalry and conflict. When the interest of a confined organization – family, corporation, party, religious or other, is pursued in way which are not in compliance with the interest of the whole, this is also a form of self-service. Some of these organizations are capable of building constructive and harmonious internal relationships between its members, but if they do interact selfishly with the outer world and trying to use it and victimize it, they are still operating as subjects in service to self. Therefore, if a person is devoted to his organization and is working selflessly for its development, but it is functioning in the service to self, his participation is still sustaining the same driving force. It is not enough a person to be unselfish to avoid being part of the egoistic driving force, but it is needed the overall effect of the organization he is working in to achieve beneficial influence to the environment through developing of the whole. The driving force of service to self is leading to twisted identification of the social priorities. When it is guiding an organization the result is protecting ill functioning status quo at the expense of the whole environment which is gradually harmed more and more. A typical example of this behavior in global scale is the lack of will on behalf of the states in the fight against climate change and the absence of an overall plan for transforming the economy, so that it becomes socially fair and environmentally friendly. The egoistic systems consider the animals, the plants and Earth as things which can be used by humans here and now. Insignificant are the legislative changes in few states for shifting this vision towards them. It remains predominant the understanding that they are primarily an economic resource, which can be used for creating dependence of large groups of people, because of their need of food. The unity in a system of service to self is achieved when people accept that they will be used for selfish purposes, but are granted the right to use others as well. Management in such systems is the planning of exploitation. It includes analysis for what purposes and to what extent someone can be used for selfish reasons. The development of the participant is directed and restricted, according to the needs of the system. This means that if the system needs large amount of low-qualified workers, it has to make sure that people are dropping out from the education system and are coerced economically to look for the corresponding position as a worker. Modern Western societies are ghettoizing large groups of their minorities and are encouraging illegal immigration in order to constrain them to occupy the low-level positions of the labor market. Another remarkable flaw in egoistic systems is that many problems are necessary for justification of its organs and therefore solving them fully is an unwanted result. Examples of such social problems are examined in the following chapters.

Service to the Whole

If service to self, namely egoism, is well known characteristic of the individual and programmed way of thinking in governing the social processes, the service to the Whole requires more thorough description. The known approaches and methods for managing a state or a private business unjustifiably ignore this guiding force. In the next chapters it will be presented what would be the positive developments for society in general, if the driving force service to the Whole is integrated into different social structures. Can we define rationally what the Whole is? Who is the subject, whose interest we protect as supreme and with priority over all others? What is placed as a core ideal in the center of the social system? How are we supposed to organize a society in order to be called holistic (in service to the Whole)? Do we have examples of social models which are developed by this driving force? Let us define the Whole through its parts, which means through understanding who the subjects in it are. These are all living beings that the members of the corresponding system are aware of and for whom it is reasonable to assume that will emerge. It consists of all human-beings, animals, plants and other creatures that we are finding. The Whole comprises also the Cosmos, all universes, galaxies, planets, Earth. Among its subjects are the living beings from the past, those in the present and those that might be in the future. The concept of a living being usually is associated with a biological creature. If it is scientifically proven that do exist other conscious beings that do not have the known biological structure from Earth, they should also be considered as part of the Whole and subjects of the holistic model. More details about the subjects of the holistic model are presented in chapter two. In order to provide proper answers to the questions above, it is necessary first of all to clarify what motivation stands in the core of the driving force service to the whole and what attitude it creates for the individual and for the society. At the deepest level and in the center of this driving force stands the knowledge about the unity of all, the existence of a common Source of life and the ability of the individual to perceive itself as its unique manifestation. This knowledge and intuitive feeling forms an aspiration for building harmonious relationships among the participants which will support the optimal development of all. This unity does not deprive from individuality the subjects, neither standardizes them, but recognizes their equal importance and encourages their creative and unique development in a direction which is respectful for others. It should be distinguished from the imperative unification, typical for the egoistic systems, which deforms the participants and turns them into survival individuals who are exploiting the environment. Therefore, the identity, that forms the driving force service to the whole, is beyond selfish pursuing of egoistic objectives, but extends into the understanding of belonging to the whole environment. The service to the whole should also be distinguished from the impersonal view and heartless relationship towards people. The difference with the motivation of service to self is that the person does not achieve prosperity for himself and his loved ones on the expense of others. It is impossible and more importantly unnecessary for a person to try to resolve all problems in the world. The service to the whole does not mean to overload yourself with huge problems and responsibilities, neither is related with taking the burden of someone else. It is timely local action in the present environment which leads to global harmonization of the whole system. The correct name of this driving force is “in service to the whole” and not “in service to others”, because the last excludes the person from the scope. This exclusion is wrong and undesirable, because he himself bares the highest responsibility of his own development and only he has the freedom to choose its direction. On the basis of the knowledge of the unity of all, the individual develops his attitude not only to consider and respect the interests of others, but also adequately and altruistically to satisfy them through the exercising the relationships that they do have. This type of interaction between the individuals leads to their harmonious development and positive change of the whole environment. One of the main distinctions between both driving forces is that the service to the whole requires balancing one’s personal interest with those of the others and satisfying it by finding mutually beneficial solutions, while the service to self is related with taking advantage from the interests of others in order to gain for yourself. The egoistic structures rely on institutionalized authority to form the reality and attitudes in society, instead of providing proper instruments for the people to do that by themselves. In order to achieve this level of obedience among its members, the egoistic structure propagandizes absolute trust in the established sources of information, because they are controlled. The social structure which is functioning in the service to the whole on the other hand relies on providing the necessary instruments to the participants for building wide, rich and critical worldview. The persons who have developed an expertise in certain area are encouraged to provide their in-depth knowledge and point of view, but at the same time all others are free to choose how to evaluate the conclusions of those experts. The critical thinking is required in the systems of service to the whole and neglected in the systems of the service to self. This important difference between both forms of community organizing draws the conclusion that the egoistic system is dogmatic and imposing whereas the holistic is creative and respective. While the egoistic system values the amount of energy a person is able to take from the others, most often in the form of money, the holistic system values the quality and quantity of energy a person is providing for the whole. On a personal level, one of the most certain ways to understand what driving force is guiding us in the choice of a specific profession is, if we can answer in the affirmative of the following questions:

1. Do I contribute sufficiently well for the benefit of the society by conducting my work activity?
2. Was I going to practice the same profession, if I was financially secured and there was no economic coercion whatsoever?
3. Am I going to practice the same profession even if I receive a very generous offer which would provide me with more money, but the new job would benefit the interests of the society much less?

The driving force of service to the whole is transferring the individual to new levels of self-awareness and self-realization. This is a result from cultivating the sense of unity between him and the environment which can be perceived as expansion of consciousness. Until today there is not historical evidence which can show that a state is governed by stimulation of the driving force of the service to the whole. Despite that fact, we can find one particular social structure which functions very successfully by implementing this force of inspiration. It is the loving family. There are many types of families in which are build harmonious relationships between their members. In the family that serves as a good example for a social structure exists love, mutual respect, recognition of the interests of its members, trust and good communication. In short, this family is referred as loving. This form of social organization is known to many people. For it is typical that is avoided the rivalry between the members and it is substituted with cooperation and finding the proper family role for every member. The relationships in it are firm and are characterized with a high level of trust. The motivation for developing the relationships and improving them is high among all participants. The loving family manages to function well when selfish attitudes of its members are not leading and such actions are avoided. The satisfaction and joy from the unselfish service which benefits the whole family and all its members are giving us the grounds to consider this social structure as an example of community which builds its internal relations in service to the whole. The qualities which every participant is developing in the loving family include honesty, respect, care for others, kindness and others. Therefore, it is visible that the proper functioning of this social system builds a positive character among its members in a way that their spiritual potentials are revealed. It is possible to use partial aspects of this social model as an example of structuring bigger communities, including private corporations and even states. It is absolutely possible a family to be kind and caring only about its own members and unscrupulous towards outside people. For example, a dictatorial family or exploitive family corporation may have an internal atmosphere of understanding and support, but inhumane terror to be predominant against their subordinates and the outside world. Consequently, besides internal relations, external too should be caring the positive characteristics, mentioned above, so that a community to be regarded as one of service to the whole. Huge challenge of the way larger communities are functioning presently is that there are not well-designed global social models and macro-social systems which are guided by the driving force of the service to the whole. For the first time this can be performed by the formation of holistic society.