I MAKE US MAKE SOCIETY

LIFE HAS COUNTLESS WAYS OF TEASING YOU. A good sense of humour, therefore, is all anyone needs to survive well. Take life too seriously and stress is inevitable consequence.

Please do not interpret this to mean that irresponsibility is acceptable. Far from it. To be responsible for one's actions is the backbone of a stable, safe and prosperous community; from the family unit upwards. I do agree with conventional wisdom that the family is the smallest building block of the edifice we call society, a term we bandy about carelessly without bothering to understand its true implications. If we did we would understand why there is a need to go along with the mainstream.

The family is like a brick. A good brick properly laid can build a house to last. Take a hypothetical situation, however, of someone planning to build a house larger than what the available budget would allow for. Naturally, to get round the problem the quality of the building materials is compromised. Cheaper of everything to get more of everything to build the house that is not meant to be. And we all know that cheap means poor quality. Like all things of doubtful quality they don't last well. Material fatigue sets in quickly.

Therefore, when families are not strong and healthy the society they help make is bound to be less than optimum in all respects. In fact, one really bad family on the block can cause enough havoc if left to wreak it with impunity. When the other families on the block try to grapple with the problem that block will become less efficiently composed because energies are dissipated in what is a very avoidable situation.

But, for some reason contemporary society is beset with problems within the family. The talk among social workers is inescapably a list of so-called syndromes. The "generation gap" is short for children who give a lot of lip unnecessarily to parents and parents who are unreasonable. "Latchkey children" are very much loved children with both parents working to make ends meet and maybe a bit more. An "abused child" is one too many and the abuser ought to be locked up and the keys thrown away. "Domestic violence" is now very much a crime and thank god for that. And so on and so forth.

A social unit that is larger than the nuclear family then is dutybound to assist in alleviating these problems and ensure that social reproduction is always geared towards all that is desirable, which comes down to a simple elimination of unhealthy family practices in all its facets.

For example, the generation gap is well avoidable if parents would shed aloofness and resort to quality time bonding with their children from cradle to grave. This means that mum and dad must give of themselves unconditionally. Yes indeed, do "spare the rod" but do NOT "spoil the children" and turn them into brats. The maxim here is "responsible parenting". "Latchkey children" are meanwhile the sins of a neglectful society. It is best solved through government policies. Supervised local community halls equipped with mind and character building activities is an obvious solution.

Again, do not mistake my advocacy of the "community spirit" for licensed interference in the affairs of all and sundry.

In politics they say that every society has the government it deserves, even the totalitarian state is well deserved. Because the individual is the smallest atom in a polity, that individual has all that it deserves, the good and the bad. Suffering in silence is not a social option because there is political action. If one knows what is good for oneself one must act to ensure its sharing. If, lo and behold, you find that many others share your values then you who is bestowed with political agency in a democracy will have chalked up a victory.

The individual is then the key to society's salvation, the foundation upon which the building blocks rest. The stronger the individual, the better the building blocks, the more successful will the nation be, where success is measured by indicators of social justice: whether access to education, nutrition and healthcare, water and electricity is universal.