ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an outline of the political structure of our societies, to make clear to the reader how social relationships were dislocated and ruptured. It shows what, according to Ralph Stacey, is the Europeans’ views of society as an entity as well as the position of the individual human beings within it. Stacey referred to what he termed the modernist position: that is the position in which the individual is his society is autonomous within his society–a state of the autonomous individual. He/she was defined in relation to a cosmic order so that persons come fully to themselves when they are in touch with that cosmic order that is a universal order of things. Stacey pointed out that the process sociologist Norbert Elias acknowledged Hegel’s influence in emphasising the essential interdependence of people. The chapter argues that Norbert Elias’ statement implies that cultural factors of a people evolve according to their needs and social circumstances.
