Is modern society becoming an open-air prison?
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”- Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher
I was watching a YouTube documentary about Slab City, a "lawless" homeless encampment in California's Sonoran Desert, where one of the makeshift shelters bore a sign that said: "Make community such that lying becomes obsolete."
That struck me.
In the U.S. and throughout much of the Western world, we're facing an unprecedented mental health crisis around anxiety, depression, eating disorders / body dysmorphia, OCD, and addiction.
When this many people are struggling, it no longer works to blame individuals for their problems; we have to take a look at the premises that our society is founded upon and consider whether it is failing us in fundamental ways.
I've commented before on the fact that modern humans behave in the neurotic manner characteristic of primates that are imprisoned in zoos - down to the weird sex crimes, pointless "tribal" warfare, and overeating.
It's almost as though society itself has become our prison. Even as our apparent standard of living continues to improve, vast emptiness, boredom, and sadness fester beneath the facade.
We struggle with a lack of adventure, of community, of God, and of meaning.
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The next natural question, I guess, is how long these social problems will continue until there are major movements for change.
That's a complicated question, and history offers a host of possible answers.
This week, I came across a paper in the Open Journal of Social Sciences, which discussed social prisoner theory in the context of modern Pakistani society.
This sociological theory posits that, under certain conditions, society can become a sort of prison, the four walls of which are (1) material acquisitions, (2) maintaining the status quo, (3) social envy, and (4) social rituals.
I was intrigued by the extent to which this theory illuminated the middle-class, suburban town that I grew up in (with an extra dash of materialism because America and a few sprinkles of repressive, conservative Christianity thrown in as well).
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We (as in humanity) have done better than this in the past.
As I've written about previously, Maslow - of the famous Hierarchy of Needs - spent some time among the Blackfoot (Siksika) of the American West*.
*Here's an article summarizing his experience.
Maslow himself suggested that "80–90% of the Blackfoot tribe had a quality of self-esteem that was only found in 5–10% of his own population."
The Blackfoot had rich traditions centered upon coming of age, self-discovery, and self-renewal. They engaged in yearly rituals in which the wealthiest gave away their superfluous possessions, describing how they had accumulated them and what they hoped they would do for others.
The Blackfoot looked at justice restoratively and treated their children permissively and with great respect.
This description of Maslow's time with the Blackfoot reminded me of a passage from Howard Zinn's The People's History of the United States.
In general, Zinn is careful not to look too rosily upon the "primitive" societies that existed prior to Western colonialism. He notes, for example, the dependence of the slave trade on African tribes' violence against each other. He is also careful to acknowledge the realities of starvation and minimal medical care in early societies.
However, when he is discussing the Iroquois Nation - who inhabited the land in Upstate New York that I live on now - Zinn notes that they were a uniquely at-peace-with-themselves people who seemed to have achieved an existence of physical and spiritual abundance that was interwoven with the rhythms of their land.
He cites several examples of Westerners who ended up living with the Iroquois for some time, then declined to reintegrate with Western colonists when given the chance; in parallel, Iroquois children who ended up spending part of their youth with Western colonists, but who had been raised among the Iroquois long enough to remember what life was like for their tribe, almost invariably returned to the Iroquois when given the chance.
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There is a sociological theory that says that the function of a system is what it does rather than what it purports to do.
So, for example, the U.S. justice system - rather than existing to right wrongs, to enforce social norms, to imprison dangerous people, etc. - exists to maintain the hegemony of the socioeconomic elite and to effectively enslave the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
I think that a similar dynamic may be at play with addiction and other mental health issues, too.
Not only does Big Pharma profit to the tune of billions of dollars a year off of the suffering of the masses, but the people who are judged to be most mentally ill are precisely the thinkers, fighters, artists, and reformers who would otherwise be taking our society in a different direction.
The biochemical enslavement of modern people through food that sickens them, jobs that deplete them, and drugs (and other quick-dopamine fixes) that addict them is such a perfect formula for maintaining a sick status quo.
I was talking to a friend from Hong Kong about the possibility of forming an international commune in Malaysia, and - health permitting - I would love for that to be my next great arc, if only to see for myself whether we truly were better off once we put in the (massive, unrelenting) work to handle for ourselves food, healthcare, childrearing, disaster preparation, and so on.
I've always been a monk when it comes to things, so the idea of not having material possessions doesn't give me pause, and man - what I wouldn't give to live in a community that made me feel like I had real agency (or just a real community at all, I guess).
Who's with me? Malaysia Commune 2028!
I'll be our pharmacist, of course.
Hope that all of you are well. As always, thank you for reading!
B.
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