Individual and Society: Exploring the Dynamics of Relationships
Tensions in the Individual-Society Relationship
Individuals are integrated into their social environments. This integration inevitably entails social tensions and conflicts.
Rejection
Rejection occurs when the majority social group does not accept or recognize certain individuals as full members. This assessment is cultural and depends on each group. Other factors, such as radical, cultural, religious, and economic factors, can also motivate social rejection. Often, these reasons are primarily based on economic disparities.
Self-Exclusion
In self-exclusion, individuals do not identify with their community’s parameters. They are not satisfied with the lives around them and ignore their group’s cultural norms. This can be due to incomplete socialization, dysfunctional family models, adverse environments, or other factors. This lack of acceptance of cultural parameters often leads to rejection by society. Self-exclusion and stigma are often intertwined.
Marginalization
Marginalization results from social rejection and self-exclusion. Individuals in a situation of isolation and segregation from the majority group tend to develop alternative lifestyles and coping mechanisms to address emotional, economic, and cultural deficits.
Violence
Violence is a consequence of social rejection and the aggressiveness with which some individuals relate to others. This violence often manifests as criminal acts and gratuitous violence, characteristic of certain subcultures.
Harmony in the Individual-Society Relationship
Harmony exists when individuals feel that their society is more than a set of independent and alien humans. When society respects, protects, and favors individual interests, individuals realize that their community actively contributes to their personal development. For true harmony, the relationship should be reciprocal: society should promote the aspirations of individuals, and individuals should promote the social good.