Raison d’etre Part One: The Man~
“That’s one of the things that’s always fascinated me. The Question, “Why are we here? What’s our reason for being?”.” –Douglas McBride
For starters, humans are animals. Awesomely sophisticated animals, but animals nonetheless. Therefore our reason for being would be to live in the world and to reproduce; the same as any other animal. We eat, sleep, hump and shit the same as every other animal, therefore on an animalistic level; we are fulfilling our responsibilities and obligations as animals, in the animal kingdom.
Moving up to the next rung, we come to Intelligent Animals. While this is more hazy, I believe that as an intelligent animal, our responsibilities also include the accumulation and propagation of knowledge, information, intelligence. For the most part we follow this concept. It’s been proven that each generation is successively smarter than the previous. It’s essential for us to do this for us, in fact, because we have abdicated natural evolution in favor of technological evolution. Rather than growing thicker pelts, sharper claws and teeth, stronger legs, we instead arrest the process by inventing clothing, eating utensils, and all manner of transportation. This provokes a differing form of evolution, though. Our lifespans are longer, our braincases are larger, we retain more information. To better propagate knowledge and intelligence, it must be shared. It’s the same reason most animals reproduce: survivability. If you teach someone to fish, the knowledge of how to fish is passed on- you can die, knowing that someone else knows how to fish. They can in turn pass on that information. Thus we add another rung to the ladder of existence: organized society.
A society that is led and directed can organize and disburse information, knowledge that is vital to the survival of the society. As an example, if you were to decide to create a society that existed in the arctic, it would behoove you to tell your constituents to dress warmly, else wise survivability would be impossible.
Organization of a society means rules. Codes of conduct. Laws, codes of conduct, mores, values, theologies and history help establish a functional society, providing a skeleton that supports the creature that is society. A society without ordered structure is anarchistic and will eventually consume itself.
Setting aside such abstract concepts as theologic and philosophic ideologies, we come to the point: What is our purpose? Our “Raison d’être”, so to speak? Strictly speaking from a societal sense, our reason for existence falls within several categories simultaneously.
First, we must fulfill our animalistic responsibilities. We must birth, grow, develop, reproduce, and die.
Second, as intelligent animals, we must learn and in turn teach to propagate our knowledge.
Finally, as members of society, we must contribute to the society’s survival, we must protect the society’s welfare, we must learn the society’s values and knowledge, and promote these things to our offspring.
To contribute to the society’s survival, we have jobs to fulfill, roles to perform, responsibilities to embrace. To protect the society’s welfare, we must be concerned with the growth and development of the society as well as be aware of external influences that affect the society’s internal functions. The valuation of the society’s beliefs and passing them on to the next generation ensures the survival of the society with the next generation.
In discussing the structure of society and the nature of society, one must consider the existence of one who is a part of the society; that’s for Part Two: The Citizen.
(Special thanks, respect, and other such awesomeness go out to OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol, for his help with Part Two: The Citizen and Part Three: The Society)