45. Society as a System
January 23, 2026
I have been thinking lately about what type of society I’d like to be living in. Not just my community, but starting there, and perhaps growing farther. It’s strange to think about society and culture this way – we are mostly expected to adhere to the cultural standards that we are born and raised into unless we decide to live outside those standards and find community elsewhere. This is a different perspective – what if we could build a culture, from the ground up, what would we want it to feel like? What are the things that I’d change from the culture I was born and raised in? What would it look like?
The astrologers say we are at the start of a change in world order. The news, when I tune to it, seems to have the same message. Old patterns are gone. What we relied on can no longer be assumed. Who will decide what is next? There is no one in charge of this. It has to be us. It can be us. We can start living with new perspectives, new values, but how?
I’m no expert on culture, so to start, I turned to my trusted research companion – the internet. The AI overview is “Culture consists of the shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and material objects that characterize a group or society, encompassing everything from language and symbols to traditions, laws, and social norms, acting as the blueprint for how people live, interact, and understand the world.” Ok, so beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and material objects. That’s a lot.
Let’s start with one thing. One thing I’d change is the emphasis on individuality. Western culture is very focused on the individual. I’ve written about this before, how the upward progress of my family – my career, my spouse’s career, the size of our house, the car we drive, my children’s sports accomplishments, the college they go to, etc., that is the focus of our culture, that is how we “win” at life. If we are revising our culture, if the one we have been inhabiting is burning down and we need to start again, this is something I would change.
So, as a start, I imagine that we move from the view of “moving on up” as “The Jeffersons” theme song sang to us in 1975, to a community, system based culture. That we see ourselves as part of a system that we play a role in, not as a cog in a machine that makes money for the stockholders and for me. It’s like the idea I’ve mentioned before about us each being a puzzle piece with a specific place where we fit. Our work is to find that place, to know that we each have something to contribute, as a builder or a creator or a healer or an inventor. Maybe as a caregiver or a grower or a performer or a companion. A mentor or a collaborator or a caretaker or a dreamer. This may very well not be the thing you are paid for, and as I’ve mentioned before, “living-on” work, work that pays the bills and provides for your family, is part of life. But it does not have to be your purpose. Think of yourself as a part of the larger system of your community. What is your role? What are you good at? There’s a Frederick Buechner quote that says, find where your deep gladness meets the world’s need. This is the work of finding your purpose. Knowing that your presence is important, that you are contributing, that we rely on each other’s work to live the life we are living.
What would you imagine as a part of this next culture? What would you want to see in our society?
P.S. if you want to explore an example of a different set of cultural beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and material objects, I suggest you see if you can track down a copy of Herland, a book written in 1915 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I read it a few years ago and I’d love to talk with someone about it, so let me know if you read it.
