Collective Consciousness (1) Our Social Antibody

Readers of military history know well that the isolated actions of a single soldier with the rifle and equipment in his hands will never amount to much in a total defence. Only with companies, battalions and other units formed by soldiers who stand side by side, bound by certain ties, can a real line of defence be formed.

A shared perspective achieved through common doctrine, tactics and techniques contributes greatly on the road to success. In a nutshell, a society that cannot unite around a collective consciousness cannot rise through isolated actions. Since in social life the winds of perception management on different wavelengths will keep scattering dispersed masses without pause, the “body of the nation” will become vulnerable to disease through manipulation.

In our earlier series, in the part on “Situational Awareness”, we discussed how change that begins in the individual’s world of thought grows like a snowball over time and shapes the mind considerably, and in the part on “Intellectual Capacity”, the importance, for building an ideal model of society, of crowning the heritage gained through this maturation with situational awareness. Now, in the part on “Collective Consciousness”, the last of these complementary concepts, we will focus on society itself.

Collective consciousness is a term covering the whole of the common feelings, thoughts, values, behaviours and knowledge shared by a group. Let us first dwell on the theoretical framework. Then, when we come to the parts where the practice of the subject is examined, let us witness how a society shaped around the concept of collective consciousness can easily fulfil many important missions.

The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology, made important contributions to understanding the concept of collective consciousness through his work. In his studies Durkheim set out the importance of “the will to live together” and underlined the disciplines that societies and nations must have in order to carry on with strong and unshakeable bonds.

Durkheim turned sociology into a science that works its own facts within its own dynamics. He did not accept the assessments of social phenomena made by Auguste Comte on the model of physics and by Herbert Spencer on the model of biology. For Durkheim, every branch of science should address the facts within its own framework. Trying to explain one scientific discipline through another is a futile effort. Social phenomena are not processes that depend only on the individual and begin and end with him. Every individual somehow takes his place within society’s value judgements and adapts to them. Phenomena such as religion, the economy, law, morality and art shape the general character of society. People tend to take general truths from society in one go, without discussing or examining them.

Durkheim lived in an atmosphere of severe social trauma after France’s defeat by Prussia in 1871. At a time when the French people had suffered a collapse of morale and their hopes for the future had begun to fade, he searched for sociological formulas that would put society back on its feet. Although he was an agnostic in matters of belief (a philosophical position holding that the existence or non-existence of God cannot be known scientifically), he embraced the view that religion and morality are two important components in the formation of collective consciousness. Arguing that morality is not a phenomenon connected only with religion, he believed it could also be an important factor in strengthening social bonds in secular societies.

(To be continued)