According to Stjepan Mestrovic, the world
is in crisis and sociology is having a difficult
time in apprehending that crisis.
The West is without a comprehensive system
of morality, each individual is left to his
or her own devices, there is little restraint
on the individual will.
Without a moral system that truly binds individuals
to the social order, crime has reached epidemic
levels; politics has become a game of power
and dominance rather than governance and consensus;
economic competition has become unrestrained
and often counter to the good of the social
whole; violence in pursuit of individual "happiness"
has become a way of life; suffering and discontent
despite material abundance has become the
norm (Mestrovic, 1988/1993, p. ix.).
According to Mestrovic, the western world
is living at the height of civilization and
barbarism.
Human knowledge today is greater than ever
before; our understanding of nature and our
universe has never been more accurate.
Literacy has been spread to the masses; higher
education is increasingly made available to
wider segments of the population.
Our technology advances on a daily basis;
we manipulate our environment to fashion goods
and services at a scale unparalleled in human
history.
At the same time, we are living in an era
when wars kill thousands; divorce is rampant;
inequality within and between nations is high;
democratic governments engage in torture;
child abuse---sexual, emotional, physical---has
seemingly become epidemic; mass murder on
the part of governments has become commonplace;
corporations exploit workers, customers, governments,
and the environment; murder and other forms
of violent crime are at alarmingly high rates;
consumerism has become a way of life for many;
drug use and abuse is epidemic; and politicians
engage in lies and deception to get elected
and to govern.
And the list could easily go on---just go
to any cable news channel on any given day,
read a daily newspaper or a weekly news magazine---civilization
is indeed advancing, barbarism is on the rise.
Mestrovic asks, could the two be inextricably
intertwined?
Civilization, or the creation of rational
institutions through government to contain
barbarism, is simply not effective.
Barbarism, or the "will" of the individual,
cannot be constrained by such rationally constructed
systems.
The "heart" (egoism) is always stronger than
the "mind" (society); the constraining of
the barbaric will can only be accomplished
by other "habits of the heart" that are equally
powerful.
These habits of the heart, Mestrovic claims,
are feelings of altruism and compassion, the
other side of human nature that must be cultivated
and given expression in our culture.
But, he warns, such altruism cannot be systematized:
"But I cannot repeat often enough that they
[Durkheim and Veblen] were against the neo-Kantian,
rational, systematization of these benign
traits.
The moment that one tries to systematize compassion
into socialism, for example, one has converted
a benign trait into its opposite.
This is because, according to Durkheim, any
time we act from duty, fear, or any sort of
compulsion, we are really acting on the basis
of egoistic self-interest, which is the basis
for barbarism.
Durkheim claims over and over again in his
writings that genuine human goodness must
be sought spontaneously, for its own sake"
(Mestrovic, 1993, p. 47).
For Mestrovic (and Durkheim) the problem becomes
how can we foster the development of such
empathy and compassion within the individual?
This problem becomes particularly acute in
that the development of civilization seems
to be eliminating the basis of such empathy
by weakening traditional institutions such
as family and community that instilled these
values, and strengthening economic institutions
that inflame the egoistic will.
Both Durkheim and Mestrovic argue strongly
that compassion cannot be learned, it can
only be transmitted through example.
To do this, Durkheim advocated "the revival
of guild-like associations and the family"
to model compassion and foster its development
within individuals; such development would
bind the individual to others with bonds of
love and commitment (Mestrovic, 1994, pp.
71-72).
Such guilds have not formed, and the family
as well as religion, community, and other
institutions that functioned to bind the individual
to the whole, continue to be weakened in the
West; Durkheim's aphorism that "The old gods
are growing old or are already dead, and others
are not yet born" remains true today.
As a consequence, Western societies are in
danger of disintegration (Durkheim, 1912/1954,
p. 475).
In addition to the weakening of the social
bond that makes Western society more vulnerable
to disintegration, there are social forces
in the modern world which are promoting the
fragmentation of nation-states into smaller
and smaller states.
New forces of sectarian religion and narrow
nationalism focused on these more traditional
identities are now actively promoting their
disintegration.
Seeking identity, values, direction, and meaning
in the modern nation state and failing to
find it, millions have turned to sectarian
religions and ideologies that glorify folk
identity and advocate "suspicion, paranoia,
and sometimes even hate of neighbors."
These fundamentalist faiths have attached
themselves to political movements that seek
to separate from the dominant culture and
establish a more homogenous social order.
According to Mestrovic, the key insight of
Durkheim that society is held together by
irrational feelings of love, affection, attachment,
empathy, and devotion to one another, has
been lost to modern sociologists.
This loss has had tragic consequences for
sociology and for western society.
The spread of modernity has destroyed all
bases for the formation and maintenance of
a collective conscience necessary to bind
the individual to the society.
The collective conscience serves to guide
individual behavior and desires in ways that
are beneficial to the group as a whole.
With this weakening, the individual "will"
becomes increasingly unchecked, and consistent
with our folk wisdom of unchecked power, it
corrupts absolutely---it becomes more and
more egocentric, corrupt, decadent, and barbaric.
These groups compete with one another for
our allegiance often by debunking and attacking
each other; information in support of or attacking
the ideological position or mythology of these
groups is freely available to all; consequently
few can give unquestioned allegiance, all
causes and positions can be countered, ridiculed,
discounted, or balanced with additional information.
The result is the spread of a personality
that is unable to take a long-term committed
stand on anything, that takes all views as
relative.
Without strong integration into such social
groups, that is, without the bonds of love
and commitment that promote the internalization
of moral guidance, the ego/will is loosed
upon the world without mercy.
Humans exploit the natural and social world
without check; since unchecked desires can
never be satisfied, and rampant anti-social
behavior is counter to human welfare, unhappiness
and misery (anomie) become a widespread social
condition.
As a consequence, many fall prey to factions
that give meaning and identity to the individual,
but at the expense of the social whole.
Others searching for meaning and identity
are cynically manipulated by governments and
corporations for power and wealth.
What is needed, both Durkheim and Mestrovic
argue, is the birth of new social structures
that can inspire love and commitment of people
and fully integrate people into the social
whole.
Lacking this integration, the will is left
to its own devices and engages in barbarism
and other exploitive behaviors in a futile
attempt to satisfy 
its whims.
If you are interested in the big picture you
should take a look at Macro Social Theory,
a book that reviews the theories of classical
macro social theorists such as Karl Marx,
Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim as well as the
work of many who extended their theories to
better reflect modern times such as Norbert
Elias, Gerhard Lenski, and John Bellamy Foster.
This book can be found exclusively at Amazon.com
at a reasonable price.
Also see Sociocultural Systems: Principles
of Structure and Change to learn how these
insights contribute to a fuller understanding
of modern societies.
Sociocultural Systems can be purchased at
most online bookstores or at Athabasca University
Press.
If you are short of funds Athabasca also offers
a free pdf version of the work.
A significant portion of the royalties I receive
for these books go to the Rogers State University
Foundation in support of students in the Liberal
Arts.
I thank you for your support and interest.
