The Continuity of Society

The Continuity of Society

"Society is a partnership not only between those who are living but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born."


  At every moment, several generations are simultaneiously alive; those just born, children, and students; young, middle-aged, and elderly adults; those about to die. As the older generation dies, new opinions and customs replace the old ones. But at one time, there are simultaneiously many different generational viewpoints jostling together for attention. The sense of society as a partnership is not always apparent to us as we pass through life. The way to reconnect our society is to keep before us the partnership between those now living and our ancestors and our descendants.

  The ancestral viewpoint is formative to the way society subtly changes over the generations. It helps codify the protocols, procedures, and customs that the present establishment upholds; it also forms a norn against which reactionary and reforming spirits can rebel. These two notions of conformity and rebellion, like tow intertwining shoots about a sapling, define the growth of the trunk. The influence of our descendants is a more subtle one. We need inheritors to guard what we have established, but we cannot entirely dictate and mold them to our desires. Our descendants will modify and change what we leave them. The continuity of society is woven from many generational needs and influences. Only when we stand at the hub of time, as ancestor, self and descendant concurrently, do we become fully aware of the contract that our partnership involves.

"What are the terms of your contract with the partnership society? Do these change as you consider them from the standpoint of ancestor, self and descendant?"