Is the individual the biggest threat to society?

Question

It is easy to blame external situations and organisations for the decline in social cooperation and standards ie. the media, political correctness, overpopulation, the government, war, fuel crisis, famine, disease etc. But all these things could be overcome or mitigated by positive social organisation. So what is really preventing this? Is it something intangiable or is it some kind of selfishness virus? Is the quest for individuality the biggest threat to society?

Answer 1

Society on the whole is so threatening that humans have started to only rely on themselves.

Answer 2

What kind of society do you want?

If you want a society where everyone dresses the same, acts the same, and labels those who are different as criminals, then possibly you could see the individual as the biggest threat to society. But remember levels of deviance have been shown to be constant in various types of society. SO when society achieves this level of unity you envision criminals will be labeled so because they eat with their left hands, or they have dropped something.

This can be seen in many historical societies, but in America, you should read the findings of the Supreme Court in two specific cases that concern the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance prior to a school day's commencement.

Minersville school district vs. Gobitis and then the overturning of that ruling just three years later in West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette.

When the supreme court realized enforcing Nationalism bred a society that made the situation that occurred in n**i Germany possible.

A society is a group of individuals, of many different backgrounds, nationalities, cultures, religions, beliefs, and talents. Individualism should not only be allowed, but encouraged.

Yes we have rules and laws to keep people from being harmed, and we need those rules and laws. But we also need to be accepting of differences in people that make this world as interesting as it is.

Your positive may be my negative, and we need a society that breeds unity through acceptance, not enforcement.

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minersville...

Justice Robert Jackson wrote, "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion".

Answer 3

public apathy and idiocracy-voters who can't quite put a sentence together and buy soundbite thinking-voters who potentially will do damage to this democracy by voting for McSame. re-electing bush.

Answer 4

still not.  overpopulation is driven by a misguided view that more kids = more prosperity.  this view is encouraged by most religions.

Answer 5

What you are asking for is for people to step in line and do what they are told. If we do that, we lose what makes us human. We become sentient beings. No thank you. I want to be a person, not a lap dog. I'd rather be selfish. F*ck the world if it means giving up my rights to do what I want.

Answer 6

If this is true we should make every effort to find that individual and make sure that he(or she) can no longer threaten us.

Give that particular "individual" some shock and awe.