Sanchit,

I think the deepest point you raise is the issue of social cohesion. As I see it, this is a function of two basic, interlocking assumptions of Western thought, that create short term positive feedback, but longer term destructive consequences.

For one thing there is this paradigm of monist idealism, the long shadow of God, where it is supposed to eventually become, reach some perfect state, singularity, pot of gold at the end of the narrative arc, etc. Yet nature is more cyclical and reciprocal, more yin and yang, than God Almighty. Raw social energies pushing out, as civil and cultural forms coalesce in.

Consequently both sides of this dynamic see themselves as on the one true path, either liberal freedoms and desire reaching a state of total equality, or the conservative goal of a perfectly ordered society, where everything fits and knows what it’s supposed to do. Rather than the feedback between energy and order. Even galaxies are energy radiating out, as form coalesces in.

Then that the West is more object oriented, than context oriented, so it sees the individual as supreme, but the result is an atomized society that lacks organic strength and cohesion and so this sea of individuals have to rely on the very institutional structures they presume to reject, to make society work. It should be a two way street, between the individual and the community, with rights tied to responsibilities. There will be disadvantages to this, but that is inevitable, as communities do build up and break down, which is an overall fact of reality.

One idea you raise that is a problem would be the idea of the military being the judges of society. It goes to the old saying that if the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. The members of my family in the military tend to be very conformist. It is about top down order and so it draws in people who want order, rather than freedom of expression, which then feeds on itself and the result would be a very totalitarian society, as every state that gives itself over to the military eventually becomes.

Have to head off to work, so leaving it at this……