Research Log #2

Research log #2

Bahatti, Shumaila Javah. "Civil Society to Bring Positive Change." Http://www.MarkTheTruth.com. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.markthetruth.com/articles/1500-civil-society-to-bring-positive.html>.

I decided to search more outside of my question, and looked for more of how different countries deal with their own civil society. While doing my research, I stumbled into a man named Shumaila Javed Bhatti who wrote an article on the fact that if Pakistan had no civil society, the place would be a wreck. He also says that civil society is a war against the government and the state. If the two does not get along then the country will run into many problems. Bhatti also said, “When components of a civil society are not conscientious and active enough, then the society is like a flock of sheep. Bad governance always causes deterioration in a society.” I would agree with his statement, if we do have a terrible government that was disorganized, then that would reflect on how our country would act and go about living our day-to-day lives. Another thing Bhatti points out is that in time of need, like natural disasters, everyone in the country comes together and helps out. This makes the country have a positive civil society by everyone agreeing and working with each other to make the matter right and fixes it. Basically what his main point is, without government controlling us and keeping us in order, we would be in a state of chaos and civil society would fail miserably.

Bhatti says in his article, “The power of civil society in shaping and mobilizing public opinion is unquestioned. In many countries of the world I have seen how civil society, through its proactive role, has brought about revolutionary changes in national thinking.” I found this quote to be a strong one for I do believe that the way civil society is, it makes us change what we believe in. different countries will have different mind sets on how the society should act because of their own culture. Bhatti also mentions that when we do see something minor that we don’t like, we report it immediately to the police, or someone who can change it and make what that person is doing wrong in trouble, so they learn to never do it again.

My next step in my research project will now be to look more into how other countries deal with their civil society, and maybe if they have a different kind of governing if that would make a difference onto how civil society is viewed as. What is civil and what isn’t? Once I start looking into more details on how other countries handle their society, it might give me an idea how ours handles it as well. But most importantly how we can address uncivil manners as well. 

Research Log #1

Research Log #1

Ferguson, Adam. "Adam Ferguson: An Essay on the History of Civil Society: Part First." Index. Web. 16 Mar. 2011. <http://www.constitution.org/af/civil1.htm>.

I found Adam Ferguson’s essay to be very educational and made me think deeply into my question of what is considered to be a civil society and how it even came about. Adam discussed that we as humans are born into groups and then to have sides, as in we are either for something or against it. We view ourselves as individuals but still form a society with others to build each other stronger. A good quote I found to support this claim is, “The human kind, the species has a progress as well as the individual; they build in every subsequent age on foundations formerly laid; and, in a succession of years, tend to a perfection in the application of their faculties, to which the aid of long experience is required, and to which many generations must have combined their endeavors.” Adam suggests we form societies by the way e collect facts, observations and how we deal with past experiments. He also says that we as a union have to get along, and those we have more powerful leaders before us that we follow. Adams writes, “The state of nature is a state of war or of amity, and men are made to unite from a principle of affection, or from a principle of fear, as is most suitable to the system of different writers.” With this said, Adam is saying to us that we follow those who are viewed as a leader to us, we will unite and abide by the rules when we are put into fear of the consequences. He says that we will put up with everyday individuals, just so we can get along and for the profits they will offer when agreed upon things in a civil matter.

            This article stood out to me in a variety of ways. The way Adam says that we count on each other for many things is a huge starting point at where acting civil around each other would be necessary. If we all didn’t get along there would be no point in even thinking about what civil is and how we should go about in acting upon it. I also liked the fact that we all started off being born into groups of people, or a society. If we were animals, we would be born into herds or groups of animals as well and would grow up following the footsteps of our parents and the ones around us. Like animals, we act the same, when forming communities and interactions with other.

            I believe this article was a great starting point for me to think about different ideas on issue of civil society. After reading Adam’s essay, there were a few questions he brought up that made me want to investigate those issues as well. For instance, Adam asks, “Can we explain the principles upon which mankind adjudge the preference of characters, and upon which they indulge such vehement emotions of admiration or contempt?” This question brought up my attention by asking why we have preferences for character types? Overall this article made me think of a lot more topics of a civil society in different ways.