Don’t have time for that

A social relation or social interaction is any relationship between two or more individuals. Social relations derived from individuals’ interaction form the basis of a social structure.

Social philosophy is the study of questions about social behavior and interpretations of society and social institutions in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations. Social philosophers place new emphasis on understanding the social contexts for political, legal, moral, and cultural questions, and to the development of novel theoretical frameworks, from social ontology to care ethics to cosmopolitan theories of democracy, human rights, gender equity and global justice.

There is often a considerable overlap between the questions addressed by social philosophy and ethics or value theory. Social philosophy includes political philosophy and jurisprudence, which are largely concerned with the societies of state and government and their functioning.

Social philosophy, ethics, and political philosophy all share intimate connections with the social sciences.

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one’s goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one’s own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism and more corporate social forms.

Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts “with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation.” Classical liberalism, existentialism, and anarchism are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central unit of analysis. Individualism thus involves “the right of the individual to freedom and self-realization”.

Individualism is thus also associated with artistic and bohemian interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency towards self-creation and experimentation as opposed to tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors as so also with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.

Ideology is a collection of beliefs held by an individual, group or society. It can be described as a set of conscious and unconscious ideas that make up one’s beliefs, goals, expectations, and motivations. An ideology is a comprehensive normative vision that is followed by people, governments, or other groups that is considered the correct way by the majority of the population, as argued in several philosophical tendencies. It can also be a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of society such as the elite to all members of society as suggested in some Marxist and critical-theory accounts. While the concept of “ideology” describes a set of ideas broad in its normative reach, an ideology is less encompassing than the ideas expressed in concepts such as worldview, imaginary and ontology.

Ideology refers to the system of abstracted meaning applied to public matters, thus making this concept central to politics. Implicitly, in societies that distinguish between public and private life, every political or economic tendency entails ideology. Ideology is “the imaginary relation to the real conditions of existence”.

With all that said (no, I did not include footnotes) there is much more to the conversation than just the weather, recent purchases, and health.

Social media and in some sense the established journalism have dumb-down the importance of what we, as human beings, really want to know from each other. Are we worth more than a drunken selfie, pet photos, captured quote from someone we might have respected like Martin Luther King or Mark Twain or Pee Wee Herman or worst yet, an angry and evil shout out based on nonsense and uneducated bias?

As friends we wish to hear similar yet variations of ideas to broaden your beliefs and ideology. Those with opposing views are worth the time to listen to if the message is coherent and based on actual facts. Otherwise, why do we bother?

What is most important between people?

That sunset you photographed with your phone and posted for all to see, did it make you feel better?

The solitude of watching that sunset with your own thoughts is what really captured that moment in time.

To share that particular moment is an experience connecting humans. It can be a silent pair sitting on a bench or a group celebrating the day passing; it is meaningful and bonding.

In our youth we tried so hard to become part of the overall social structure we bowed down to the requirements of water cooler talk about television shows or complaints about working hours or critiques of a disastrous movie we all witness but are ashamed of now or that tight sweater worn by the secretary in HR. With groups of ‘friends’ we continued the bland references to life with some sort of mental altering substance.

Those brief moments of honest inter-connections were few but memorable.

With political correctness restrictions it is difficult to speak your thoughts possibly offending another. If the bond is worth the effort, both will try to find the reason for the discourse and take appropriate actions to resolve the offense. Could we end war?

Or has society become so affluent to disregard anything ideas but what has been established in government and religion? Are we so jaded to our own selfish ideologies that we have forgotten how to learn from a different point-of-view. Have we stopped our social education? Have we stopped evolving?

Why do we wait until it is too late to say the things we really mean? Are we such posers that original thoughts established on readings and listening and experiences cannot be expressed? Can we take the conclusion of our intelligence creating an ideology that becomes our personality and thus our perceived persona?

How difficult is it to ask someone to dance with your? How easy is it to express the feeling of that sunset without saying a word?

Do we want to hear quotations from an ancient scripture or a repeated statement from some notable or a replay of a television show?

It is frustrating trying to find the truth in souls for they might not accept the challenge or maybe not worth the time?