What are the Constants of an EverEvolving Society

thank you

good evening everyone and i hope you’re

all doing well my name is kira fernandes

and today we will be discussing the

constants of an ever-evolving society

as we’re plunged into this way of life

completely unlike anything we have

ever experienced before this thought may

have crossed your mind

what can we be sure of in a world like

this

or rather what are the constants of an

ever

evolving society it’s a heavy question

weighted by years of reconstructions of

social norms values and beliefs

the values held by our society in the

1800s have drastically shifted to become

what they are today

for that matter even the values held by

our society in the 1990s

have undergone dramatic transformations

to become the standard set before us

at present and even though it may seem

like bell bottoms are making a comeback

the values held by our society in the

70s don’t seem to be tagging along

so this essentially tells us that

depending on the era

in which we exist we are presented with

a different set of norms values and

beliefs

from those that came before us and since

these components form the very fabric of

our civilization

their evolution results in an equally

evolving

society as a sociology student i learned

about this

reshaping i learned that some of the

things we believe

are such rudimentary and foundational

parts of our lives are simply notions

that we have constructed for ourselves

by

ourselves and as our view of the world

shifts these notions do too

as an example let me reintroduce you to

the familiar concept

of childhood a period of time that forms

a foundation of who we are

as people today and who we will become a

period of time

where we are sheltered from the

viciousness of the outside world

a period of time characterized by

innocence vulnerability

an experience and in my case so much

fast food

but also a period of time deemed

completely

unnatural and a recent invention by

french historian

philippe aries aries believed that

childhood didn’t exist before the middle

ages

of course children still existed but the

things that made them children

the things that distinguished them from

adults that did not

children were virtually the same as

adults they harbored the same priorities

to earn a wage and feed their families

children worked as chimney sweeps or in

sweatshops as soon as they were able to

and weren’t sheltered from some of the

more demerit aspects of society such as

crime and deviance but in contrast

they took part in these activities as

well and just like adults

children faced the same repercussions

for their actions

even though children of the upper class

did have the luxury of indulging in

their whims every now and then

they were still expected to get married

at ages as young as 14 years old

and drafted as soldiers during war times

but after the 13th century these ideals

shifted

dramatically to morph into childhood as

we see it

in the modern day today we view

childhood as a time to instead

socialize and educate our young members

of society in preparation for their

eventual debut

into the real world and this

transformation

is but one example amongst a myriad of

other ideologies that have mutated into

completely different beliefs

suited for modern society and the people

living in it

and these transformations as a whole

reveal to us our very

first constant change

change is a permanent factor in our

lives it is everywhere between space

and time it starts from the very minute

you are born and then follows you

throughout the rest

of your life you are constantly growing

you are constantly evolving you

are constantly changing change is always

happening but the way in which

it happens that is up to us

and in our society we observe a pattern

of these changes moving towards the

better

over the last millennium human beings

have ushered in the age of the internet

and technology diversity and methods of

communication

and more advanced healthcare and

educational institutions

amongst a plethora of other developments

these are the ways in which our society

has changed

or rather the ways in which our society

has improved

and this introduces a new question

what motivates human beings so

deeply to improve their societies

well after peeling back the layers of

surface rationales like money

patriotism or public recognition we are

left with a deep

rooted instinct and our second constant

survival just like any other animals

humans too we

we strive to survive but the way in

which we do this is what distinguishes

us from other animals

instead of learning to camouflage and

sharpening our claws

we opted for a different approach to

construct

communities within the wild completely

safe

from predators and over the years these

communities have continuously progressed

through accumulating more sophisticated

technology and increasingly efficient

methods of satisfying people’s

material needs and wants nevertheless

humans have also recognized that this

sort of development alone

isn’t all we need to survive we

also need each other

according to the functionalist

sociological perspective which is one of

the three perspectives of observing

society

it states that a society functions in a

very similar way to that of a machine

just as a machine has cogs and wheels

that must work cohesively

in order for the machine to function

society we have human beings that need

to work cohesively

in order for the society to survive we

need to establish

harmony in order for our society to

survive

therefore disorder isn’t an option

we require what is called a value

consensus

simply put a value consensus is a

general agreement across the society

on a set of values or morals or ethics

to live by

it essentially dictates whether an

action carried out by an individual

is morally good or bad and whether to be

punished

or not and this brings up

another question a deeper question

what does it mean to be good

while i’m sure aristotle would be very

interested in having his life’s work

outshined by an 11th grader

unfortunately unlike gravity and the

conservation of mass there are certain

phenomena that exist in our society

that simply don’t have definitive rules

like what it means to be good however

over the years different people have

developed different moral philosophies

attempting to explain

exactly what this means these include

the theory of moral subjectivism

which states that the morality of an

action or whether it is good

or bad is decided by the individual who

carries it out

or the theory of cultural relativism

which states that

the morality of an action is decided

based on the relevant culture of the

society

in question or the theory of

utilitarianism

big word i know but it simply means that

the morality of an action is decided

based upon how much happiness

it evokes from others and these theories

simply form

a handful of the multitude that exists

but it is also through this

persistence over generations to uncover

one of society’s

greatest enigmas that we truly see

the human instinct to survive so our

constants amidst

an ever-evolving society remain change

and the determination to survive but

why should this matter to us what is our

role

in all of this well

we need to remind ourselves of these

constants

and use them together change alongside

our want to establish harmony to survive

earlier i spoke to you about childhood i

told you of its inexistence merely

a millennium ago and although it is more

accessible today

in certain parts of the world in less

developed parts of the world

it remains a luxury some are still

unable to afford

and this is but one aspect of our

society that still

requires reshaping and that still

requires change

however today in this conference is

everything we need to

invoke this change which is you

because just as i said earlier change is

uncontrollable it is always happening

but the way in which it happens that

is up to us which leads me to our final

constant people you

and me we make up our society without us

society wouldn’t exist

we are the very building blocks of our

global community all 7.8 billion of us

and that ladies and gentlemen are the

constants of an ever-evolving society

thank you