Someone once told me that the society is hated by the arrogant.

In fact different societies are hated by different people and for different reasons. Sometimes the rebel is in the right, sometimes the rebel is in the wrong. Same is the case for societies.

It all depends on the practices of the given society. If a society has an anti-intellectual attitude, that would make enemies of the intellectual type. If a society has lots of incest and domestic violence, that would make enemies of the people who are
against incest and domestic violence. In neither case is the rebellion the result of arrogance. It is the result of disagreement with wrong practices in societies.

This brings me to a related issue, and that is multiculturalism. Is it viable for there to be one culture or many cultures? Should we honor wrong practices done in other societies, or should we try to change them?

Now I most certainly support there being many societies to choose from. Different people will have different propensities that will either flourish or be attacked depending on the society in place. It is not valid to seek a monoculture that denies
people wisdom and knowledge of paths other than theirs. Neither however should we have to accept all societies. I see no reason to accept a society that thinks it right to throw sulfuric acid into the face of a little girl for going to school, and I donâ€
™t see why a feminist would either.

With power wielded on behalf of societies, it should be questioned. The real problem with power going to societies is that we have here an authority that is unelected, unofficial, unbalanced and unchecked – that as such has nothing to keep it from
becoming tyrannical and corrupt. And many societies become both.

This can lead to a confusion: between a value and the misuses of the value. Wrong things done for societies discredit society, leading many conscientious people to become antisocial. I used to be one such person. I ended up realizing that the error was
one of confusion between the value of society and abuse of the value of society. Wrong things done in the name of a value tarnishes the value. And I want to see more people understand such things so that they don’t take a mistaken path.

Is society hated by the arrogant? Clearly there are some situations in which someone’s ego it too big to accommodate anything else on the planet; however there are other situations in which the disagreement with society is of more valid origin.
Standing up to a society that thinks it right to throw sulfuric acid into the face of a child for going to school is a matter of conscientiousness and courage, and I hope that more people in places such as Afghanistan take that path.

What is seen as arrogance is frequently no such thing. I once heard a professor say that there is good arrogance – which he defined as believing one can figure things out – and bad arrogance – which he defined as oppression. Maybe good arrogance
should be more accepted. That way efforts made in benefit of humanity will do its job of actually making life better. And that is good for people whatever society they inhabit and whatever culture they partake.

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