It’s weird to think that someone, somewhere, is giving a
talk right now about the s word. No, not scones [although, let’s be real—delicious],
but the ever fascinating and elusive society.
I can just hear them across college campuses now, “Don’t let society tell you that you can’t! Don’t let them dictate who
you are.” You hear activists on the street corner yelling profusely “Society breeds injustice! Society made you
that way!” Reverends towering over their congregations, bellowing from the
depths of their conviction “There’s a
whole society of evil dedicated towards glorifying sin! To stay with God you
must spiritually remove yourself from this society.” Society society
society.
Who is society? We are society. We are the dreaded “them” we
always enjoy pointing a self-righteous finger at. Isn’t that ridiculous to
think about? How many of us wake up in the morning, stumble into the bathroom,
and look in the mirror thinking “Yeah, I’m looking like society today.” Walk up
to the barista for our morning coffee, “Yeah can I get a caramel decaf latté for
Society.” When we stand across the altar from one another, the priest doesn’t bless
“Mr. and Mrs. [or ms and ms, or mr. and mr] Society.” But we all are. As a
collective whole, our mass public contributes to the social diction and
protocols which we then label as “society.” You are the individual embodiment
of a collective generalization. Meeting a friend for lunch you may be Karen,
but for the purposes of studying the social sciences you are society. Thanks
for delivering the whole neighborhood’s paper promptly every morning, but on
Sunday you are still society. And don’t even bother to make light banter with
me across the counter, because as soon as I’m wiping up your coffee spill you are
right back to being society!
When we talk about society in such a negative light, I think
we forget that we’re all society. When we say society needs to change, we
essentially say people need to change. And if we are society, then I guess
logically that means we need to change. Shouldn’t that empower us? Make us
realize that society is not some externalized force that beats the shit out of
us on a daily basis [fuck you gravity, I’m not clumsy you’re just out to get me].
The idea that change starts with society is nice, but society is us. And we are society. They are not mutually exclusive
unless we make our relationship to “society” [others] exclusive on their giving
us a better car/wife/meal/seat/license/education. “Oh! Well if it’s just me that’s society then yeah. I’d totally
change” I say to myself all the time. But then we tell ourselves that we are
not society, we are the exception.
Return to step one, rinse, and repeat. Hello, my name is
Society. I’m from Washington State, though I go to university in Hawaii. I
enjoy traveling, eating, hiking, swimming, and being addicted to the internet.
One day I hope I will have a fulfilling job where I can be sustained emotionally,
intellectually, and financially [negotiable on the emotional…and the
intellectual]. I also enjoy not tipping and lying about those crumbs near the
trashcan by deflecting total responsibility onto my dirty roommates.
Yeah, I’m not an exception.
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