world_people
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All the lonely people

On one side we admire the richness of humankind in multiple languages and deplore their progressive loss, and invest into programs for their rescue or at least for timely recording of vocabulary, grammar and acoustic examples. But on the other side, we are helplessly watching their continued decline, accepting the predictable loss of worldwide multilinguality like the inescapable execution of a natural law.
But what is really happening? We do not just lose languages, we lose whole peoples. And nobody seems to be alarmed. Since decades, we joyfully tear down walls and frontiers, suspend currencies that had been in use for centuries, move routinely thousands of miles around the whole globe, without even taking notice of the billions we fly over. Almost without notice, we tacitly resign old customs to an increasingly homogenous entertainment program coming to each of our single households via telecommunication and internet.
The original cultures of this world are dying, and most of them have already disappeared. Should we be worried? Many of these "cultures" entertained quite martial habits. Among other calamities, world wars I and II were the results of exactly these "good, old" cultures. Shouldn't we rather feel relieved that we are finally leaving them behind, curing the world from a disease that lasted for all too long?
Maybe we should, but still I'm not convinced that we are getting anything better in return. No language and no custom is of specific value on its own. We should not shed a single tear for losing any old system of habits, but confidently face the future with our own well developed new habits. But do we have well developed habits? Aren't we in fact crying over cultural losses because we feel empty and worthless in confrontation with the reverberations of former times still reaching us in pieces of art from old periods?
It may be dangerous to tear down frontiers just for economic reasons. Yes, it was cumbersome to wait in line at borders, and we may have felt bothered by keeping check of various currencies. But on the other hand, these boring and sometimes stressful formalities at the borders signalled to us: watch out, this is important, you are entering into another society. The unfamiliar currency could be taken as a symbol for a culture different from my own.
Since humans are social beings, societies may be regarded as living creatures on their own. We should take care of these creatures and respect their needs and their emanations. Currencies, languages, national laws, eating customs, fashion rules, traffic signs, shop opening hours, the prices for local goods, public transport, all this is characteristic for a particular society and somehow keeps people together.
We should accept that humankind is organized in seperate peoples. We need peace in these societies, and peace between the societies. In the long term, we hopefully will find out appropriate rules to enable the world-wide establishment of peaceful relationships between humans and societies. The best prerequisite may be happy people and happy peoples. The second pre-condition is somehow neglected in these times of globalisation.
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Society as a complex system
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