One's Obligations

            It is easy to agree with individualist theories and agree with philosophers like Thoreau that we owe nothing to society, only to ourselves, because it appeals to our personal desire and makes sense on a fundamental level. Aren’t we all sole units and hence isn’t our first and only obligation to ourselves?

The problem is that society and the whole world today has only made the progress that it has in the past few millennia because there have been people that put their own self gain aside for the good of the community. If all humanity disregarded the good of society and only considered their own gain, the global society would rapidly disintegrate and degrade back into a barbaric state. We would live in an every-man-for-himself society without any government or rein on society, where ethics and morals would no longer apply. Everybody who could take advantage of other people would take advantage of other people simply because they had the power to.  

            On the other hand if everybody put the good of society first before their own, we would be no closer towards recognizing an ideal state of society. Really, the world would simply be in anarchy because even though people are thinking of the society as a whole first, their personal motivation to do anything is dashed. Who would try to work hard for society when their personal efforts won’t amount to anything significant for themselves or even for society but be shadowed by the rest of the society as a whole? Whenever people work in teams naturally individuals begin to slack off because there’s little personal gain and their contributions won’t be significant in the final output.

            As of today our society is comprised of mostly people that work towards their own personal gain and a few that feel a strong obligation towards society. This structure does not work either. Nelson Mandela (in honor of his recent death) and the South African Apartheid structure illustrates our current society impeccably. The National Party of South Africa had been enforcing apartheid, or racial segregation, primarily for their own self-gain as these white people in power are simply promoting themselves. In the end what it took for actually social progress was a man who put the greater good and society first- Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela suffered punishment and imprisonment on Robben Island before he could bring about the change he envisioned for the better of society in South Africa. Clearly our current society does not work either. Firstly, it is too slow and time taking when so many are not considering the good of society and secondly, it is unfair to those who finally sacrifice their own self gain for all of society’s progression.

            Obviously there is no clear cut answer towards the question “how should society behave as individual people when it comes to their obligations to themselves and the whole of society?” But I find that the best approach would be for all people of society to put their own personal gain first, as all people have a natural obligation first and foremost to themselves, but then to regard society as their second obligation. No decision should be made by an individual without regard to both his own good and the good of society. In this way no one person, such as the great and venerable Nelson Mandela, should have to carry society on their back but society is nurtured and allowed to progress forward.