Braindroppings

this is one of the most intellectually stimulating posts that i have read lately.

"One of the main features of the "Western" Civilisation, one that I keep on noticing without meaning to, is the prominance of groups, clubs, and other ready-made forms of social acquintance."

is it western? or is it originally from northern european countries (e.g. britain and germany). i am doubtful if the same feature has deep roots in a country like france. does it explain why political changes in england were initiated by elite clubs and groups whereas in france people took it to the streets? i could very well wrong. what do you think?

"It seems that people are very careful with their 'personal' spaces and are too afraid of someone 'disturbing' their lonelyness. Since they seem to have a hard time dealing with unpredictable human reactions, they prefer to use a pool of hand-selected "like-minded" people in order to find 'friends.'"

for years i thought this was the cornerstone of the difference between "east" and "west". i also thought that in the east people put up too much with "unpredicatble human reactions". a society that spends too much energy and time on keeping up relationships that are based on blood and traditons can not be inherently efficient. it is only too much bogged down to spare its resources on more useful endeavors.

"I did try to modify myself and fit with the norms of friendship here, but I have failed utterly."
here kicks in another level of your post. a very personal one. with what you described, you haven't failed at all. social groups are not equally popular across the society here to begin with. it seems to me that you have developed certain friendships categorized as "buddies" that has forged into real friendships. many locals are like that and you shouldn't feel different because of it.

i am more interested in knowing why social groups found roots in certain societies and not in the others. i've actually made up some full-jokingly theories about this:

i am a sagittarius and my traits happen to match those of a typical sagittarius that majority of horoscope scientists ;) agree on. i value my personal space and freedom and i hate people barging in. friendship system here works perfectly fine for me because of those characteristics. as i said i think this aloofness is shared by northern europeans where historically the temperature has been very cold in a way that it would prompt people to mate in spring a lot like bunnies. their kids consequently tended to be of more sagittarius type with aloof personality. that's how northern european culture got dominated by sagittarius traits. enough of jokes.

Thanks a lot for the comments Hooman. I am not sure about your Sagittarius theory, and I tell you that many people would call it enviromental determinism (a la Weber et al.) and would not bite into it very deeply.

If you notice, I put the "Western" in quotations. There is built-in problem with the term. What is western? I am teaching "Western" Civilisation in the university and I think of this often. What is indeed Western. In a sense, our notions of modern, "Western" cultures are basically formed by Anglo-German thinkers of the last 200 years and very much by the Industrialisation of Europe, which is basically a British phenomena. So, I would not argue with your "northern" Eruropean argument. As history professors are ready to admit, when we talk of Western Europe, we really mean Britain!

By the way, the institution certainly has deep roots in France. French culture is very elitist. Notice, the rise of modern Free Masonary started in France. The French are "in" on this for sure, although you might think of the cliche picture of the English man in his "Club", the French certainly did have their own exclusive establishments.

Your observations about American's tendancy to join little groups or clicks is quite accurate. In my High School, there were groups that functioned like Junior Fraternities and Sororities. There were two groups for boys and two groups for girls. The members were the "in" crowd, and they tended to date only amongst themselves. These groups called their organizations "clubs". I went to High School and College in the same town in Alabama. The University of Alabama has one of the most active and powerful "Greek" student communities in the U.S. Probably about one tenth of the student body belongs to a Fraternity or Sorority. Interestingly, of the students from my High School who belonged to the "clubs", and who also attended The University of Alabama, nearly all also joined the Greeks. I was a bit unusual because I did not belong to one of the High School clubs, however, I did briefly join a Fraternity. I joined because one of my best friends also joined and his brother was also a member. Our Fraternity was at the bottom of the Greek food chain at Alabama. We had the smallest house and the fewest members. Most of the other Fraternities and Sororities wouldn't have anything to do with us. Well, we didn't care. We were kind of the anti-establishment Fraternity. I spent a semester as a pledge (slave) and then another semester as a full "active" member. I had some fun, but there were also negatives. First, there was a lot of bigotry among the members. I grew up with black kids and some of them were my good friends. So, I had some difficulty with that sort of attitude. Second, I became friends with one of the Spring semester pledges. He was a very smart guy, but he was quite a nerd. Well, I was a nerd in Junior High, so we hit it off. However, some of the actives didn't like him. Ultimately, one of the actives black balled him and he was kicked out of the Fraternity. I was so mad that I quit. Ironically, the active who threw the black ball was a very poor student and he flunked out. Poetic Justice! Oh well, so much for my experiment with self-modification. :)

Interesting that you mention the Masons. Nearly every one of America's "Founding Fathers" was a Mason. George Washington laid the corner stone of the future Capital building with his little ceremonial Mason's trowel. For many decades in early U.S. history, the Mason's were a very powerful organization nationwide. Everyone who was anyone was a Mason. The Masons met in their secret lodges and decided who was going to be elected to every political office. They wielded tremendous power. However, late in the 1800's there was a sensational murder of a former Mason who had written a book disclosing all the Mason's secret rituals. All Masons swore an oath on pain of having their throats slashed to never reveal the Masonic secrets. Well, this guy had his throad cut and he died. After that there was such a tremendous public backlash against the Masons that many of the membership publically disavowed their former sacred order. It is very interesting that the first College Fraternity appeared about ten years later. Fraternities became the new secret societies.

I hope that you enjoyed my little reminiscence and history lesson. If you are ready for a change of venue, you could check out my new clue, or take a walk if it is a pleasant day. :)

khodad,

do you think sticking to like-mindeds in socializing promots consensus in attitudes instead of conflicts when we start hanging with whoever we bump into? i wrote more about it in my first comment. aren't we putting up with too much unnecessary hassles in our relationships? isn't it causing a lot of troubles on other levels (e.g. political and social) for us?

thanks.