Society: why has it gone and how do we get it back?

[YoYoYoItsTillyMinto]

According to Wikipedia: "A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations".

I don?t believe it exists anymore and this cannot be a good thing.

When did it go wrong?
How do we get is back?
Does it exist in parts of the UK?

You seem to have a negative view of humanity. You think people only look after their own interests. So who do you think helps people out of teh crisis? Do you think it is teh government? Do you think the Greek politicians will help their people out of their crisis or will it be the Greek people?

Who do you think helped teh miners in their long strike? Was it teh communities who collected cash and clothes and children's toys or was it teh Thatcher government?

Who do you think puts money into fire service collection tins when they go on strike? It is teh public, the community who support their fire service and other strikers in crisis.

When the chips are down, it is teh community who stick together and help each other out.

www.hemsworthandsouthelmsallexpress.co.uk/news/local/community-united-for-miners-strike-christmas-1-1864129

Thanks, joan. I don't know the history of it. But I think that teh consent that is necessary for it to work, is still due to an underlying community spirit.

We are often told that there is less crime in a country like Japan than here. We are told that criminals are ostracised there and that there is more shame in being a criminal. I think that is another example of an underlying cohesive community spirit which influences behaviour and consent and leads to less crime.

DH and i both work closely with communities and charities and i can tell you first hand - a quick google will tell you that charities are facing a quick downturn.
Ahh, but now you are talking of individual chairty - which isn't what you previously stated.

I was on the phone with the Big Lottery last week and they were telling me that they had extra funds because people (poor people) are buying more lottery tickets. That's not charity that's desperation.

We are not Greece. I went there recently and saw the communal food gardens and the desperation of people coming over from Athens to the islands. This countries experience is just not the same.

and simply stating that people a homogeneous uniform society of people in the UK are coming together in some kind of very british war time spirit way to help each other out is simply not true.

Stating that i commit crime is a comment not worth responding to.

'"People had nothing for themselves. Farmers gave sacks of potatoes to miners"

japan - that isn't community spirit - that's cultural expectations

i maintain that evacuation - manatory or not ( and it was) is not community

The miners did come together in solidarity, they did have community and thatcher broke it. I am not saying that community never existed - i agree with you wholehearedly on this, the miners did have community.

the things you are attributing community to currently such as the jubille is not community

'Ahh, but now you are talking of individual chairty'

I am talking about community spirit which stems from the individual, not some charities who tell people not to give money to beggars or homeless people.

I dont have a negative view of humanity, and i do not commit acts of crime, please stop with veiled insults, just debate - or don't

' That's not charity that's desperation.'

Doesn't the lottery give to charity too. I think it should give more, but that's another discussion. Of course people spend more on lotteries in hard times, because they need hope and wish that they could win some money. That doesn't mean that thgey have less community spirit.

so individual community spirit in the form of giving a begger some money? i don't understand how this is community, it is a well intentioned good deed, or an act or charity - but community i don't understand?

'We are not Greece.'

I am taking Greece as an example to demonstrate the universal principle that human charity and compassion and community spirit increases in a crisis. Do you think the british people would not be just as charitable as the Greek people? Of course they would.

no it doesn't mean they have less community spirit - it doesn't mean they have more either

Community spirit such as you mentioned in Japan claig I don't think comes from the individual exactly, although obviously the individual has to decide to behave according to it; that would be helped by being socialised to that culture as you grow up in it.

Actually have we mentioned religion on here? Growing up in a religion is a years-long process of learning to be part of a community and to put others' needs before your own. I have become unable to believe in the supernatural side any more and am no longer part of an organised religion, but I believe the latter certainly has the potential to foster community spirit when directed by the right human leaders.

'bullshit, crime rises and people look after their own interests - thatcherism in action'

'Stating that i commit crime is a comment not worth responding to.'

Oh so it is not you, it is just the Thatcherites, the Tories who look after their own interests.

Greece as an example is a misnomer, and charity and community are not the same thing necessarily.

'japan - that isn't community spirit - that's cultural expectations'

Where do you think cultural expectations come from, Mars?
They are the result of community. No man is an island. The community and society of individuals create their own cultural expectations.

Thatcher perpetuated individualism and broke communities and replaced with self interest.

You are flinging veiled insults and that's not cricket

culture is language, traditions, and beliefs usually passed down from previous generation, within this there may be community, however culture and community are not the same thing

'so individual community spirit in the form of giving a begger some money? i don't understand how this is community'

Because the fellow feeling and humanity that creates teh impulse to help another human being is due to a common humanity, a commonality, a community.

Tha act of the Good Samaritan stems from a feeling of community between individual people. Not a mandatory State ordered community but a real feeling of community.

wow you're stretching it if we are now taking about the human Community

'Community spirit such as you mentioned in Japan claig I don't think comes from the individual exactly'

I agree joan. But it is teh community who determined teh rules of society, who decided how young people would be brought up according to the customs of teh community. The individual is represntative of teh community and their actions reflect teh values of that community. Without that community and its customs, their behaviour would be different.

'wow you're stretching it if we are now taking about the human Community'

that is what lies behind a human community as opposed to an ant community.

'culture is language, traditions, and beliefs usually passed down from previous generation, within this there may be community, however culture and community are not the same thing'

But community determines culture. Community is a collection of people. Culture does not come from Mars, it comes from people, from a community and is passed down through the generations.

Your mixing up culture and community again. a group of people does not a community make. asserting that the community makes the rules of culture, is misinformed. The powerful do this.

'There was a raffle at the social centre at Christmas and I won a hamper which had been given by a lady in London. The funds were donated to the Frickley Ladies' Action Group. Weston Hall was full of freezers, we got a lot of frozen lamb from France. People used to sleep there so the food didn't get stolen.'

A Trade Union is alos a community and in any crisis, community spirit increases to meet the human crisis. That is why gospel singers sing "we shall overcome", people help each other more, the worse things get.