Is Society Basically Good?

Yes, society is basically good. I can say that unequivocally as a social scientist who has studied society in its myriad forms for 30 years, in the fields of Sociology (Ph.D level), Social Work (MSW), and Law (JD), and as someone who has done 30 years of work in the field as a sociologist, social worker, human rights advocate, community organizer and urban planner—I can say with some authority that society is basically good. Humans cannot survive without society, and humans are at their healthiest and spiritual best when they live in equitable, healthy societies, enlightened societies. 

But that society is basically good doesn’t mean that there is no injustice and that society doesn’t need to change. Indeed, our global industrial capitalist society needs to be transformed. In fact, it’s in the process of healing injustice and bringing about social change that human beings create the best societies, the most egalitarian, just, healthy, culturally diverse and ecologically resilient societies possible.

In Buddhist thinking, samsara is nirvana. Samsara (injustice, inequality, violence, oppression, environmental destruction) is nirvana (justice, equality, peace, freedom, diversity and ecological resilience) if we engage in the process of transformation. Change as a continuous and omnipresent process, is basically good.

An unenlightened society can become an enlightened society if it is transformed. The necessity for transformation does not negate the basic goodness of society. In fact, it is because society is basically good that societies are worth transforming, worth the monumental effort it takes. Because it is in that process of transformation that humans develop love, compassion, truth, justice and wisdom.

And society is more than just the interaction between two people. It is a network that is vastly more complex than just two people talking. Ethan Nichtern, a Shambhala Shastri and student of the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, founder of the Interdependence Project (theidproject.org), says in One City: A Declaration of Interdependence:

At the same time, our insight into interdependence must lead us somewhere that Buddhist philosophy has rarely gone in its history: we must deeply examine, critique, and transform the complexes of confusion and suffering that exist not only on the personal level, but on the systemic and societal level. If Buddhism has any relevance here and now, it must quickly develop both social and political applications. (Nichtern, One City p. 51).

The Interdependence Project has a series of Podcasts on iTunes on 21st Century Buddhism and contemporary life.

https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/interdependence-project-21st/id286040275?mt=2