I agree with the claim that how stable a society is depends on how it reacts to both the extremes of human behaviour,positive and negative.


If we go back in time to see how society gradually evolved, we'll see that the very basic reason for the formation of societies was to exercise a controlling influence on human behaviour. Early man began to hunt animals in groups. These groups became the tribes.Each tribe was governed by a set of primitive laws. Perhaps it was forbidden to kill a member of your own tribe. Also positive behaviour was rewarded,in the form of titles etc. These tribes gradually metamorphised into today's societies governed by a much more comprehensive set of laws.


There are different types of societies in the world today. On one hand we have the liberal Western societies and on the other we have fundamentalist societies like in Afghanistan. In fundamentalist societies, we often find brutal punishments for crimes. A thief may have his right hand cut off as punishment. These punishments, though inhuman, serve as a very effective deterrent and help to keep in check a society fraught by violence, poverty and illiteracy. That is the reason why such societies continue to exist even today.Rewards for positive extremes often are very rich leading to kingships or chieftainships.


Some may argue that the Western societies despite being more humane in punishments and less rewarding in nature also have managed to survive.This argument though seemingly plausible is faulty. Even in Western societies we have capital punishment. But due to their advanced nature, such societies manage to preserve their stability by other means. Punishment has taken the form of economic sanctions threatening livelihoods. Benefits have become more intangible. But the basic premise that bad behaviour should be punished and good rewarded still holds good.


Human nature is...