However, this assertion is not to say that other factors are not important for the health of a particular society. Other factors such issues of conflicting ideologies, physical and mental attributes that might come into conflict and the management thereof, would all come into play. Even then, many of those issues and their arousal can be traced back to issues of wealth and poverty, showing Bellah's theory to be correct.
In essence, so much of human behavior can be explained by money matters, even that which does no appear to relate at the surface, that the management of socioeconomic differences within a society is the single most important thing that a societal structure can do to maintain relative peace. Hence, sensing how well a society manages it is the perfect litmus test pertaining to that society's long term health.
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So is the issue whether inequality is reduced, or whether dissent is well-contained and managed?
ReplyDeleteJoe this is exactly same thing that I wrote about in my blog. I totally agree that disparities wealth is one of the biggest triggers of revolutions. I think that it is a question of reducing inequalities and not a question of containing dissent well. This is because even if dissent is well-contained, a society is still full of problems. You can hide the issue, but it will never go away until it is dealt with.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. To answer PTJ's question, well-contained and well-managed inequality is not a cure for social ills but more of a pain killer. An example of this would have been in Rome when large public sporting events with free food (Bread and Circus) were used to prevent the general public from truly realizing how impoverished it was. However, as can be attested to by the downfall of Rome and events in various other countries throughout history, well-contained socioeconomic distress will still lead to revolution. Therefore the health of society long term is reliant on actual equality as opposed to simply apparent equality.
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