Society is a fiction. As is government. As is "the economy". These concepts only exist in the abstract. There are only individuals seeking their own self-interest. And in so doing they often band together to take by force that which does not belong to them. Most of the time however the collaborate voluntarily and make cosentual arrangements to assist one another by trading.
Some people may say it is my duty to ensure that a person in some rural town has running water. While the provision of running water may be a goal for a group of politicians that have organised themselves into a group called the National Party, the ANC or any other such grouping, what gives them the right to confiscate my wealth for that purpose? If I concede that they may have the right to do so because of the fact that we belong to a particular "society" - why do we draw the lines around "society" as being within the South African borders? If there is a more needy situation in Blantyre shouldn't the South African needs be made subservient to that - then why not Sudan - the Blantyre community is "well off" in relation to them. Surely society should encompass the whole of humanity. The question arises "Am I my brother's keeper?"
No, groups form, or rather band together, in order to exploit those that are weaker than them and at the bottom there is the individual who is rather defenseless against these onslaughts of SARS, the Mafia and other such groupings.
C.M. Heydenrych
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