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“Society is the enemy of humanity."

#116: Feb. - April 2013 (Fiction)
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stahrwe

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“Society is the enemy of humanity."

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In Chapter 3, The Man Who Was Thursday Syme, impersonating an anarchist, says, “Society is the enemy of humanity.”
Does this reflect the romantic idea of mankind at Chesterton's time, (the Noble Savage of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein) that man is ultimately good and becomes perverted by the forces of society?
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Interbane

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Re: “Society is the enemy of humanity."

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Expand on that idea. What societal forces are bad for us? I'm not reading the book, but I'm reading the posts.

Just surface level speculation, I'd think there's a mix of good and bad.
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Re: “Society is the enemy of humanity."

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Of course Mary Shelley was a lot earlier than Chesterton, but it's not hard to see how radicals might have picked up on the idea that Shelley plays with for part of the book, that society makes the monster truly a monster. Society as a corrupting influence did appear to originate with the Romantics, but it didn't become politicized until later.
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Re: “Society is the enemy of humanity."

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Interbane,with respect to TMWWT I am sorry but your request is like when my wife wakes up with 2 minutes remaining in the movie having slept through the first 118 and asks why that guy is doing that.
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Re: “Society is the enemy of humanity."

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GREAT topic :!:

If anything, it highlights the glaring difference between anarchy and the Christian conception of man and his(our) nature. The anarchist position obviously maintains that humans are naturally good and that we would figure things out on our own. I'm not certain if we are bad from birth, but I would believe that without government, we would degenerate into a Lord of the Flies situation very quickly. I would argue that the Christian idea is more realistic in this light. Then again, even a small band of people can be considered to be a "government." I'm finding a lot of "consensus decision making" and other non-government, government solutions that anarchists espouse. :?
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Re: “Society is the enemy of humanity."

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Interbane,with respect to TMWWT I am sorry but your request is like when my wife wakes up with 2 minutes remaining in the movie having slept through the first 118 and asks why that guy is doing that.
:lol:

Point taken. I wish you'd answer your own questions then. I mean no offense, but I won't be reading this book, although it interests me. I'm casually following the thread is all and it piqued my interest.
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