ILLUSION OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

• (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1- Religion and Society & Paper 2- Religion and Society)
•  (Relevant for GS Syllabus: Paper1- communalism)

• Man is described as a social animal. But in modern times he is often not found to be sociable. As a consequence community life is becoming rare.
• A community is one where each category of people shares the basic conditions of common life. What we have in our villages and towns now are only loosely-knit ethnic or religious groups.
• Community life is found to be absent in most known human conglomerations. But it is a known fact that that administration, politics etc. can work well only where there is a genuine community. Therefore it is no wonder that these systems largely fail in their missions because of lack of community life in our society.
• The pertinent question that can be asked is: “Why do we not have genuine community life here?” One can easily infer that the basic reason for the lack of community life is man’s failure to recognize the fact that he is basically a biological organism.
• Absence of basic biological instinct of survival of the species in the society is the cause for his unsocial behavior. This instinct has vanished because now man is very much possessed by his social inventions such as the religion, caste, ethnicity, nationality, etc.
• Man’s existence is socially as well as biologically determined. Now we find that man is socio-politically very active. He bothers more about his nation, culture, class, status and political power but very little is his concern for the biological aspects of man.
• He has become least sensitive to the biological needs of fellow humans. If he were conscious of his basic biological nature he would not have let millions of people go without food and shelter. While modern man has come far away from his original way of life in the fields and woods, he has, at the same time, failed to share whatever is present on the mother earth with all fellow humans.
• Power is usurped, the weak oppressed, food grabbed and the land encroached by the so-called civilized and social man of today. The pity is that all these activities are justified in the name of his nation, religion, caste, class and the like.
• Modern man’s social set up has led to many adverse effects. Man is biologically adapted to the life of fields and the woods, not to the life imposed by the city, the factory and the office.
• Modern technology and the social life frustrate hereditary dispositions. Concepts like the nation, religion, caste, etc have made him feel secure only in the company of his own clan or group and not with all humans.
• This parochial tendency has made man more unbiological and unnatural. He has even become blind to the fact that his own clan or group will desert him when basic biological needs are not met.
• This narrow mindedness has also led to another catastrophic phenomenon namely Population explosion is the result of each clan’s or group’s desire to increase its number even at the cost of the other group’s interest, affected either consciously or subconsciously.
• This phenomenon is bound to occur in all groups, as every group will develop vested interest.  If common species interest had prevailed over the narrow clan or group interest this unnatural increase in population would not have occurred.
• The present growth rate is not biologically viable. Man exists as an organism in a common world of animals, plants and other physical objects and processes.
• Biological phenomena cannot be altered beyond a certain limit. In nature, biological changes take place very slowly. But now man has been forced to use scientific discoveries at an alarming rate because of the un-biological growth in population.
• This overpopulation of humans has become a genuine problem for the biological system affecting the ecological balance between man and his environment.
• If only man had realized that he is basically a biological being with absolute necessity to co-exist with other components of nature, he would not have increased his number to the present explosive level. Now modern man lacks a full share of the universal requirement of a healthy human organism such as fresh air, sunlight and freedom of movement.
• His efforts to conquer nature have landed him only in deep trouble as we see now. Rapid changes of environment through technological development cause various forms of
• Increased production of various materials needed for the ever-increasing demand has affected the environment very badly. More industries and more burning of fossil fuels and wood create more environment-unfriendly chemicals like the chlorofluorocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide
• The ill effects of these toxic chemicals are well known like the ‘Green house effect’ with its concomitant deleterious consequences. More excavations and artificial dams have been found to cause earthquakes causing immense damage to life and property.
• So we find that the factors that have made man unsociable are his own creations like the nation, religion, caste and such other artificial barriers. They have now become man’s real enemies because they divide human populations into watertight compartments and create frequent strife.
• Now it is everybody’s knowledge that there is no part of the globe, which is free from friction induced by these artificial divisions. As man now is so much preoccupied with his social concepts he has failed to realize that he is basically a biological organism.
• Science, which is his brainchild, also has given him a false sense of superiority over biological processes. As a consequence of this he has even failed to understand that his own physiological system has limitations in coping with his expanding ingenuity.
• Many examples can be quoted for this. Cancer colon is one such example, which is the result of man’s experiment with his diet. Highly refined diet with less fibre content had been incriminated to be the cause for the high incidence of this disease in the West.
• Another example for the ecological disaster is the difficulty faced by the biological systems to degrade plastics produced extensively by man. What is learnt from such observation is the fact that whatever man does should be within the realm of biological viability.
• Most of the activities of man today deviate so much from the nature of biological systems that he has started experiencing difficulties like the ones quoted already.

SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO MAKE MAN MORE HUMANE?

• The most important measure is to make man shun all artificial divisions and related practices that make him ignore the basic biological nature of humans by diverting his attention.
• He must be made to understand that the species interest is needed for his survival and welfare and the man-made divisions are coming in the way of his development into an advanced species.
• Even his existence is in peril more because of his passion for unbiological aspects invented by him. The immediate action needed in this respect is control of the population explosion, which interferes with the refining of mankind.
• Use of science to manage this explosive situation has only resulted in the degradation of the environment to such an extent that it is threatening the very survival of the biological system.