The Social Immune System

A new way of looking at the "Social Safety Net".

I found this article and it's comments fascinating. Coming to think of social welfare programs as the defense against social disease (as is dis-ease) rather then as "somebody getting something for nothing" could be a very good thing.

I hesitate to post this as many will not read the actual article and will become upset that there is an embedded video from the Social Democratic Party in advance of the EU elections in a few days.

I would like to focus on the idea of a "Social Immune System" and if "Social Welfare Programs" (Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, etc in the US) do constitute an Immune System against the Ills of totalitarianism.

The article can be found here:

www.commondreams.org...

Just a couple of short and specifc quotes:

In other words, malignant racism combined with a bad economy can still foment social poison. Hatred seeks power and power seeks hatred, and they sometimes find each other. And what we call the “social safety net” might better, perhaps, be called the social immune system — because society is a living organism.

We have a crucially abiding need to build the best of who we are into our social structure; if we don’t, the worst of who we are becomes inevitable.

I like the idea because it offers a way of maintaning scope. When you are speaking of social programs only in terms of individual benefit or detriment - it is an inadequate and erroneous metaphore as the scopes are different.

Social Programs refer to vast programs effecting vast numbers of people in varing circumstances and you will always find the specific instance to "support" your position. Hence there is no real way to speak to this other then statistically.

Social programs do effect individuals however, their effectiveness can only be measured against (or over) an equivalent scope of effect.

Lots of questions - important questions for us to ask....

What is a healthy society? The article implies moderation and lack of extremes as a starting point... what do you think?

How do we measure a healthy society????

This is a good viewpoint and metaphor.

If one of the measures of a 'healthy society' is 'lack of extreme' viewpoints in governing, here's an interesing chart. I've seen a better one but can't find it and no - I didn't write down the source - sorry:



I'd like to see it even further back which the other chart did.

The Good Ole Days - were the days of Moderates in congress.

I would like to focus on the idea of a "Social Immune System" and if "Social Welfare Programs" (Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, etc in the US) do constitute an Immune System against the Ills of totalitarianism. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

The way that I have seen social welfare programs used in the United States, they are not a help against totalitarianism...they are a tool of it. The social safety net here is designed to keep people with just enough to avoid things like the early 1900s when people were out in the streets demanding better pay and better treatment on the job.

a reply to: AnIntellectualRedneck

That is hardly an objective measure.

While we can never be truly objective, we must strive for it.

Survival demands objectivity and cooperation from us and both require we do our best to put aside dogma and seek objective measures of societial health - and health requires a strong and flexible immune system.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Okay, except that I see nothing in calling the social safety net an immune system objective or non-dogmatic.

The government bailed out Wall Street fat cats with our tax dollars, the government is embroiled in a horrific scandal involving the VA, the government flat out lied about the reasons for going into Iraq, the government has made legal the indefinite detention of American citizens, the government has militarized the very people that are supposed to be there to protect and serve, the government has sold us into financial slavery to insurance companies with the ACA, the government has seen fit to have free trade policies with companies that openly do not reciprocate and constantly make thinly veiled threats against our allies.

Yes, we must have a social safety net system, but the government is manifestly not a wise or appropriate vehicle with which to administer it.

originally posted by: AnIntellectualRedneck
a reply to: FyreByrd

Okay, except that I see nothing in calling the social safety net an immune system objective or non-dogmatic.

The government bailed out Wall Street fat cats with our tax dollars, the government is embroiled in a horrific scandal involving the VA, the government flat out lied about the reasons for going into Iraq, the government has made legal the indefinite detention of American citizens, the government has militarized the very people that are supposed to be there to protect and serve, the government has sold us into financial slavery to insurance companies with the ACA, the government has seen fit to have free trade policies with companies that openly do not reciprocate and constantly make thinly veiled threats against our allies.

Yes, we must have a social safety net system, but the government is manifestly not a wise or appropriate vehicle with which to administer it.

It can hardly be dogmatic if it is a new idea, a new metaphor, a new 'coinage'.

And the thread has nothing to do with government, per se, but an idea and a good one at that. Your rant about government would seem to support the idea that our current 'social immune system' is compromised not that it is an inadequate or erroneous metaphor for such a system.