Valerie Reynolds
Are we all puppets of society? Or do we actually have a hand in determining the course of our lives? What makes us behave the way we do? Are our actions determined by forces beyond our immediate control or are we able to choose our behaviour by free will? These are questions that have been asked time and again by hundreds of thinkers, philosophers, and needless to say, sociologists. The debate of whether an individual has free will or not, is among the oldest problems humans have had to grapple with. So, are we or are we not puppets of society? What is society? This ontological question must be addressed first. There are many definitions, but let's just use the simplest; which is, a group of individuals broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture. Since we live in a largely globalised world, it would be fair to say that all of us live in a global society. A global society is one that is characterised by increased communications among people of diverse cultures and socio-geographic divisions.
My opinion is that we are all indeed puppets of society. But the irony is that, we, as individuals, make up society. How then can we be puppets of something that we create? Can a puppet be a puppeteer all at once? Perhaps we should ponder a little further about what society REALLY is. Society is not a thing nor is it an entity. The human species is not telepathic - it possesses no group mind and no collective consciousness. Every single human thought that has ever been thought, without exception, during the entire history of the human race, has been thought individually, within an individual human mind. Every single human feeling that has ever been felt has been felt individually, within an individual human mind. As all choices, decisions, opinions, loyalties, duties, depend on the power of thought and feeling, only individual...