Society is broken

A version of this article was first published: ethics.org.au - December 2011

Jared Ellsmore

The celebrated British novelist and creator of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith, spoke on the current state of Western societies, asking "Are our societies broken?"

In the UK riots of earlier this year, McCall Smith commented that the only shops not looted in some areas were the book shops. This suggests that either the looters and rioters had a profound respect for English literature or were simply oblivious to the treasure troves of knowledge they passed over in favour of a high definition television. While it would be pleasant to think it was the former reason, the money seems to be on the latter.

The riots are said to be the product of social decay. McCall Smith identified three causal factors, namely alcohol abuse, a lack of honesty and mainstream portrayals of violence. Alcohol abuse in the form of binge drinking and a culture embracing and promoting excessive consumption damages society's physical health, increases the burden on law and order and creates a culture of escapism from reality. Widespread and growing lack of honesty within society is evidence of a ‘dog eat dog’ society, where one in five defraud insurance providers and more than one in 10 admit to regular shoplifting. Mainstream portrayals of violence desensitise the young, normalise a resort to violence to solve problems for men and perpetuate discrimination against women. Alexander McCall Smith argued the appropriate response to this decay and its causes is to reaffirm public virtues by embracing civility in our own lives and shaming the media and our fellow citizens when they encourage this culture.

There has always been a tendency in society to hark back to ‘the good ol’ days’. Our society, it seems, is always just that step away from a ‘golden age’ that had been lived by a generation in the past but lost due to a collapse in the morals and values of society. Perhaps there is merit in this. Perhaps there is not. Yet this observation does serve to demonstrate that we ought to be cautious when proclaiming that a society is ‘broken’. To make this claim, we must necessarily ask what a society that was not broken look like. What does a ‘fixed’ society look like? Would it be self-evident if we reached it or would we be unaware of our own accomplishment? Is a mere ‘functioning’ society sufficiently better than a ‘broken’ society or is more improvement needed? What is the societal (dare I say civilisational) standard against which we may measure and determine if a society is ‘broken’?

It seems that to claim the cause of societal decay is rooted in teenagers drinking too much, a neighbour lying on their resume and a child watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster is a little premature. While they may be contributing factors, perhaps there are more worthy horsemen of the apocalypse such as imbalances within the economic system, exploding social divisions, worldwide ecological crises and a biogenetic revolution. Or, in fact, McCall Smith’s causes could be seen as part of larger causes. A culture of excessive alcoholism may encourage a culture of consumerism, individualism and a focus on instant gratification. It may alternatively present a method to numb ourselves and adopt wilful ignorance of the state of our lives or society. In essence, there are probably larger causes of social decay that may subsume those suggested by McCall Smith.

On the other hand, alcoholism, a lack of honesty in relationships and media indifference to displays of gratuitous violence may not be causes at all, or at least not solely causes. They may be the result of societal decay, symptoms of the problems and not problems themselves. A lack of honesty in our relationships may simply signal confusion by individuals over what is the agreed upon ethical code of society and how far they can push it. Displays of violence in the media may signal the prioritisation of capital returns on video games and movies that require high adrenaline and increasingly explicit sequences over the moral obligation of the media to educate and accept that some displays are not appropriate for the mainstream.

There are dangers in not addressing these issues. Excessive alcohol consumption leads to grave economic, legal and health costs and may deserve stricter regulations and taxes as demonstrated successfully by the Scandinavian countries. A lack of honesty and civility saps our collective strength and faith in the community, and we ought to hold ourselves and our leaders to high standards. Portrayals of violence in the media can desensitise us and remove our social restraint against the use of violence. The words of Robert E Lee come to mind here, that “it is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we would grow too fond of it”. The media should be admonished for purposeless and unnecessary portrayals of violence that do little to advance the artistic merit of a film but much to advance the box office or release date takings.

It is a big call for McCall Smith to argue society is broken on such narrow grounds. But he is correct in raising these as issues in need of address. It is also pleasing to lastly note that for a society to hold such a festival as this, and for a speaker to be able to openly and freely criticise the structure of society and for it to be a full house audience, is a sign that a society is monitoring its own vitals and being conscious of its own shortcomings.

Jared Ellsmore is a volunteer at St James Ethics Centre. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy) and a Bachelor of Laws, is experienced as a paralegal and as a court reporter, and has had several articles published.