Stages of Social Change
Determinants of Development
- Society is self-existent. It is its own determinant. It is under no obligation to any external force in its evolution.
- Geographical climate, historical past, natural resources appear to be the determinants in the beginning until society discovers that it is its own determinant.
- Natural resources and scientific discoveries are only instruments and not causes of development.
- At the point of transition from external determinism to self-determination, social evolution passes from subconscious to conscious status.
Society
- Individual initiative is social disturbance.
- Expansion is evolutionary.
- The whole concentrates the whole of itself on one thing.
- Today's awareness is tomorrow's achievement.
- Society makes the Individual decision determination.
- Form alone matters to the society.
- Social actions are similar to air movement by pressure.
- Social movements are amoral.
Social Consciousness
- Society exists subconsciously, functions consciously.
- Society is an organisation on its surface, but is really a living organism at its core.
- All achievement in the society is collective, not individual.
- The collective social knowledge moves from experience to comprehension.
- The knowledge of experience is the subconscious knowledge of the physical.
- Knowledge of experience is unconscious knowledge of the physical.
Development of New Social Consciousness
- Life develops by consciousness and consciousness develops by organisation.
- Development renders all existing behaviour, belief, functioning etc. obstacles.
- Society accepting the Pioneer and willing to follow him is development
- Development is development of consciousness.
- New consciousness expresses as change of attitude.
- All new economic progress begins with this changed attitude to lifestyle.
- Development is stalled when the understanding inverts cause and effect.
Four Stages of Social Change
- Social evolution is for convenience sake divided into four stages of Survival, Growth, Development and Evolution. (combine 4&5)
- Each of these four stages within their own territory has the four stages.
- There is struggle against the lower pull in survival.
- The struggle in growth is an upward effort.
- Development is development of new forms in the same plane.
- Evolution is to create a new plane where new forms and new structures are to be created.
- The rules of survival and growth are the same but work in the reverse.
- Rules are the same in all levels.
- Survival has two phases:
- while the community grows one may aim only at survival;
- while the community disintegrates the phenomenon of survival takes place
- Survival in the ascent, survival in decay.
- They can be termed as survival during periods of growth and survival during disintegration OR positive and negative survival.
- Negative survival consumes several times greater energy than positive survival.
- Positive survival, negative survival.
- Intensity of energy per unit area of action as a co-efficient is the same for survival, growth and evolution though as an absolute quantity there is a phenomenal difference.
- The same rule in different periods acts differently in its results or appearance though in essence the rule remains the same.
- Opinions, attitudes, understandings, values, accomplishments vastly differ according to the period. A thorough study reveals the full scope of human nature.
- The truism "Human intelligence has reached its peak when man was born" will be true not only for intelligence, but for all aspects of human capacity.
- Satisfaction at any of these stages is full and appears of equal value.
- Collective survival reveals the rules of social behaviour.
- Individual survival reveals the aspects of human nature.
Social evolution
- Social existence is one of change. It is not static or stagnant.
- Change of social existence is a principled evolution.
- Evolution from one plane to another demands conversion of energy on the scale of liquid becoming vapour.
- Social development is moving from the subconscious physical experience to conscious mental experience.
- Social development is Man moving from the physical to the mental.
- Social evolution begins not at the conscious or even the inconscient part but at the subconscious level as the base of the society is subconscious.
- Readiness of the society emerges at the individual, not in all society because the emergence must be organised knowledge or organised action. It is not enough the consciousness is ripe.
- To organise consciousness into knowledge or action in one individual, the whole society must supply the consciousness.
- Social evolution is a subconscious process in the collective.
- Collective is subconscious, the individual is conscious.
- Subconscious collective, conscious individual.
- All achievements of the society are collective, not individual, i.e. expressions of a cumulative, collective advancement expressed in and through individuals.
- Only the collective achieves.
- The collective achieves, the individual expresses it on its behalf. [A purely individual achievement in a field may be possible, but it would not be representative and would not lead to a social advancement.]
- Achievement is collective, expression is individual.
- The subconscious achievement becoming conscious accomplishment is through the individual pioneer.
- The pioneering individual makes the subconscious conscious.
- In a mature society, the pioneer becomes a leader whereas in an immature society he becomes a rebel.
- Maturity creates the leader, immaturity the rebel.
- Society destroys a leader if he appears too soon.
- Premature appearance is certain destruction.
- The collective appreciates its own perfection in the individual, not the individual's.
- The collective concedes no individuality.
- The non-individual collective creates to crush -- creation for opposition-crush or adore, don't co-operate.
- Collective social knowledge moves from experience to comprehension.
- Experience first, comprehension next.
- Knowledge of experience is unconscious knowledge of the physical.
- Experience is unconscious knowledge.
- Experience is physical, knowledge mental.
- Social development can be unconscious from the physical experience or conscious from the mental knowledge.
- Unconscious ascent, conscious descent.
- Evolution of society has its earlier statures of development, growth and survival.
- Survival, growth, development and evolution.
- The laws of change in each phase are the same in essence. The only change is change required for operating in each plane.
- Laws are essential, operation is variable.
- Even the laws of death, decay, destruction and disappearance are the same but work in the reverse direction.
- A law is true even when reversed.
- These laws are the same for the individual, organisation and the social collectivity.
- The individual, organisation and society differ in expression, not in essence. Law is the essence, expressions vary.
- Essential law is the same, expressions are many.
- Society is its own determinant and is under no obligation to any exterior force in its evolution.
- Social determination is self-determination.
- Geographical environment, climate, historical past, natural resources appear to be the determinants in the beginning. Ultimately society discovers that it is its own determinant.
- There is only one determinism, the inner determinism. 17. At that point of transition from external determinism to self-determination, social evolution passes from unconscious to conscious status.
- Transition from the outer to the inner is from unconscious to conscious.
- At that point of transition from external determinism to self-determination, social evolution passes from unconscious to conscious status.
- Social evolution begins not at the conscious or even the inconscient part but at the subconscious because society has its base in the subconscious.
- Subconscious is the social base (neither the conscious nor the inconscient.)
- Readiness of the society emerges at the individual, not in all society because the emergence must be in organised knowledge or organised action not as ripe consciousness.
- Organisation makes for social readiness.
- To organise consciousness into knowledge or action in one individual the whole society must supply the consciousness.
- One man's perfection is the perfection of the whole.
- Evolution from one plane to another demands conversion of energy on the scale of liquids becoming vapour.
- Crossing the plane, energy explodes.
- Social development is by the self-conception of the society.
- Creative conception is self-conception.
- Self-conception is creative.
- By social development we mean society accomplishing its work by developing an organisation for it and continuing to improve that organisation.
- Development is development of organisation.
- All existing forms of behaviour, belief, functioning etc. become obstacles when development begins.
- Present is a barrier to the future.
- Society accepting the pioneer and following him is social development.
- The pioneer initiates, society follows.
- Following the pioneer is development.
- Development is development of consciousness.
- Development is development of consciousness.
- Change of attitude expresses the new consciousness.
- New consciousness is new attitude.
- All new economic progress begins with this changed attitude to life style.
- By changing the attitude, the country progresses.
- The invisible plane of life is as much a field of production as the factory that manufactures and the land that produces the grain.
- In fact, being subtle, this life plane is more powerful and more productive.
- More subtle, more powerful.
- Historically, all phases of development have begun only like this.
- History confirms productivity of the subtle.
- Even when natural resources, scientific discoveries have initiated a phase of development, it will be seen that they are only instruments and not causes.
- Resources and discoveries are instruments, not causes.