people have argued that society at large behaves like a huge organism since at least antiquity. it’s even stereotypical of hippie groups to say “the whole world is alive, we’re just tiny cells inside it”. i think that people do have that concept quite well-spread. it’s more modern society where this has been suppressed in favor of “rugged individualism” etc.
for an example, see the Blind men and an elephant. the world is like the elephant: a huge organism. by only inspecting a small local part of it, we are led to believe that “the world” is either a trunk, a leg, a tusk, etc. meanwhile the world is not only all of these parts, but more importantly a huge organism that connects all of these parts into an organized whole.
people have argued that society at large behaves like a huge organism since at least antiquity. it’s even stereotypical of hippie groups to say “the whole world is alive, we’re just tiny cells inside it”. i think that people do have that concept quite well-spread. it’s more modern society where this has been suppressed in favor of “rugged individualism” etc.
for an example, see the Blind men and an elephant. the world is like the elephant: a huge organism. by only inspecting a small local part of it, we are led to believe that “the world” is either a trunk, a leg, a tusk, etc. meanwhile the world is not only all of these parts, but more importantly a huge organism that connects all of these parts into an organized whole.