The Centrifugal Society
Today's edition of Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports that renovation personell complains over half-smoked cigarettes and chewing gum flourishing the capital's main street Karl Johan amid several garbage disposals. "People just throw their cigarettes; they don't care about the ashtrays", complain Toyfik Boukherache, responsible for daily renovation of the center of Oslo.
Surely, the causal explanations of this trend are numerous. One might be the wealth and extremely high living standards (on a global comparative scale) that Norwegians enjoy; our newly-acquired patterns of consumption have tought us to throw away instead of saving (Not that I propagate saving old chewing gums or used cigarettes; the same behavior of reckless consumption might be transferred to other areas of life). Another explanation may be found in the vague notion of "moral deterioriation". Still, holding this opinion would be pretty normative as it assumes some moral norms to be superior or more worthy being pursued than others. I'm not outright rejecting this claim (saving that contentious debate for another day), but rather I'd like to focus on the individual's attitude towards society - or the collective, to clearly spell out the dilemma of polarization.
Along the history of philosophical thinking and ideological currents man has been understood primarily as an individual (liberalism) or a member of a group (Marxism). Somewhere on the middle ground is Martin Buber who suggests that the I only exists in relation with the You under the postulate that "all actual life is encounter" (I and Thou, 1923). More trivially, patterns of demography forces man to relate to other men and thus organize themselves in groups or societies, be they interest groups, religious affiliations or nations. Today, membership in the latter group is inevitable by birth (excluding for the sake of a parsimonious line of argument the sad fate of numerous persons who are denied citizenship in any country), and therefore every individual has to relate to society.
However, the degree of attention one places in society is another question, and this is where I return to the chewing gum in Oslo's main street. Broadly speaking, one's attitude towards society can be either centripetal or centrifugal (from physics, a centripetal force is a "center seeking" force while the centrifugal force is a “center-fleeing”force; click here for Wikipedia's entry on centrifugal/centripetal forces). In other words, one can be attentive to community and the common good, or one can recklessly pursue one's own interests. Needless to say, this is a polarized distinction which not necessarily exist in its pure form in the real world. But my point is that the way the sum of individual attitudes moves towards one or the other pole of this continuum, will severely affect society as a whole.
For instance, after having suffered five years of German occupation during the Second World War there was a tremendous sense of fellowship among most Norwegians (the treatment of quislings (sic) was a national disgrace, as in most European countries that were under occupation during the war). Finnmark, the Northern-most part of the country, had been torched by the Germans fleeing Russian forces, and post-war reconstruction of the country was a top - and common - priority of the Norwegian people. The attitude towards society was clearly centripetal. However, in recent years, particularly from the 80s and onwards, there's been a marked shift towards a more centrifugal society. Kids and adults alike throw garbage in the streets, weekend rampage is on the increase (so is alcohol consumption), and there is a general mood of complaining about high taxes and public services. These are just a few examples of the more self-centered priorities which govern common Norwegians nowadays, gradually turning Norway, "the most livable country in the world", into a centrifugal society.
Perhaps this is a too gloomy picture. Perhaps things aren't really that bad comparatively speaking: I've lived one year in Honduras, Central America, and seen people show total neglect towards common values and society, but in my opinion that might just as well stem from an apathic feeling of being caught in poverty and hopelessness. Fortunately, Norway - and Norwegians - aren't close to being in the same situation, neither economically nor mentally, but the alarm sign has started to blink. Are we aware or is it none of my business?
Surely, the causal explanations of this trend are numerous. One might be the wealth and extremely high living standards (on a global comparative scale) that Norwegians enjoy; our newly-acquired patterns of consumption have tought us to throw away instead of saving (Not that I propagate saving old chewing gums or used cigarettes; the same behavior of reckless consumption might be transferred to other areas of life). Another explanation may be found in the vague notion of "moral deterioriation". Still, holding this opinion would be pretty normative as it assumes some moral norms to be superior or more worthy being pursued than others. I'm not outright rejecting this claim (saving that contentious debate for another day), but rather I'd like to focus on the individual's attitude towards society - or the collective, to clearly spell out the dilemma of polarization.
Along the history of philosophical thinking and ideological currents man has been understood primarily as an individual (liberalism) or a member of a group (Marxism). Somewhere on the middle ground is Martin Buber who suggests that the I only exists in relation with the You under the postulate that "all actual life is encounter" (I and Thou, 1923). More trivially, patterns of demography forces man to relate to other men and thus organize themselves in groups or societies, be they interest groups, religious affiliations or nations. Today, membership in the latter group is inevitable by birth (excluding for the sake of a parsimonious line of argument the sad fate of numerous persons who are denied citizenship in any country), and therefore every individual has to relate to society.
However, the degree of attention one places in society is another question, and this is where I return to the chewing gum in Oslo's main street. Broadly speaking, one's attitude towards society can be either centripetal or centrifugal (from physics, a centripetal force is a "center seeking" force while the centrifugal force is a “center-fleeing”force; click here for Wikipedia's entry on centrifugal/centripetal forces). In other words, one can be attentive to community and the common good, or one can recklessly pursue one's own interests. Needless to say, this is a polarized distinction which not necessarily exist in its pure form in the real world. But my point is that the way the sum of individual attitudes moves towards one or the other pole of this continuum, will severely affect society as a whole.
For instance, after having suffered five years of German occupation during the Second World War there was a tremendous sense of fellowship among most Norwegians (the treatment of quislings (sic) was a national disgrace, as in most European countries that were under occupation during the war). Finnmark, the Northern-most part of the country, had been torched by the Germans fleeing Russian forces, and post-war reconstruction of the country was a top - and common - priority of the Norwegian people. The attitude towards society was clearly centripetal. However, in recent years, particularly from the 80s and onwards, there's been a marked shift towards a more centrifugal society. Kids and adults alike throw garbage in the streets, weekend rampage is on the increase (so is alcohol consumption), and there is a general mood of complaining about high taxes and public services. These are just a few examples of the more self-centered priorities which govern common Norwegians nowadays, gradually turning Norway, "the most livable country in the world", into a centrifugal society.
Perhaps this is a too gloomy picture. Perhaps things aren't really that bad comparatively speaking: I've lived one year in Honduras, Central America, and seen people show total neglect towards common values and society, but in my opinion that might just as well stem from an apathic feeling of being caught in poverty and hopelessness. Fortunately, Norway - and Norwegians - aren't close to being in the same situation, neither economically nor mentally, but the alarm sign has started to blink. Are we aware or is it none of my business?
posted by Einar at 11:17 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home