# Young's Civil Society

## November 4th, 2020

-   "I remember a reporter saying he felt so much more calm when it was just newspapers without any form of electronic news - it's hard to stick to it, but I think it's good. It doesn't do you any good to obsess over numbers from hour to hours, whether it's votes or infection numbers - you won't affect those numbers, so just check them once or twice a day, and that's it."
    -   The election won't be decided today; heck, it may not be until next week, and might come down to within a thousand votes in a few states. For that reason it's a tense time of incredible uncertainty; let's try to keep it together in the meantime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-   In Habermas's idea of political society, and by extension Young's, you have 3 parts: the state, the economy, and civil society
    -   How should these 3 spheres relate to one another? It isn't clear, and there isn't a single right answer - but Young's pragmatism-inspired view that there isn't a single answer suggests it's going to be a dynamic process
        -   Young is very careful not to get carried away with civil society - she stresses there are things civil society CANNOT do, and that they need the state and economy for some things; Young isn't an anarchist who thinks we can do away with centralized government and be entirely self-organizing
        -   "Americans tend to associate anarchism with violence, and that goes back to the Haymarket Square riots and such, but it doesn't have to be"
        -   Think about the "Reagan revolution" in the 1980s: Reagan got massively reelected on a platform of small government and letting the free market and the economy govern how things go, in a kind of libertarian view
            -   Anarchists would say "great, but we need to do that with the market as well, because the market leads to economic imbalance and all these problems!"
    -   Young, though, says that big government sometimes IS the solution, and you sometimes DO need the state and the economy to step in - but not always

-   So, what actually is civil society?
    -   By Young's definition, CIVIL SOCIETY isn't a single thing, but a domain of relationships - it's the free association of people without outside coercion from the market or the state
        -   Robert Putnam in his book "Bowling Alone" would say bowling leagues, for instance, are a kind of civil society, or a "contra dance" group (which Dr. Kirkman is involved with, and he jokes is "like square dancing but fun")
            -   Putnam's sociology book raises concerning points about how people don't interact as often today, and how that's a disturbing trend for our society - there's no point to "bowling alone"
        -   "Civil society is just any freely chosen association of people coming together for some particular purpose"
    -   Young says there are 3 kinds of groups/purposes in civil society
        -   PRIVATE purposes/associations are groups that come together purely for activities within the group, like a board game group, or a family reunion - there might be micro-scale politics ("I think the speaker should sit over here", "No, let's go with this music piece tonight")
            -   "My stepfather was a Eugene Debs socialist and atheist, my dad was a buttoned-down Republican and Christian, but they got along REALLY well by never talking about politics and talking about their families and shared jobs as engineers"
            -   Now, certain groups often lean certain ways politically - contra dancers *tend* to be progressive, for instance, because it became popular among hippies in the 1960s - but it's rare for EVERYONE to agree on everything politically (Dr. Kirkman certainly has fiddler friends he plays with who are conservative)
            -   Again, though, these groups are often outside of politics, even consciously - "I wish we could talk about them respectfully and without trying to 'score points' or 'owning the enemy', but how many times have you been at a family gathering and heard someone say 'Hey, let's not talk about that right now'?"
                -   "I've written 2 books, and my 2nd book was on environmental ethics in the suburbs, and I've always thought 'this book has to pass the mom and dad test' - if my parents who're college educated but not intellectuals can't understand it, or would refuse to read it because of my tone, I've failed. Heck, Iris Young fails that test; I don't think they'd make much headway, and Iris Young gets bogged down in all these micro-discussions with philosophers whose names mean NOTHING to anyone outside the field"
                -   "...in hindsight, my 2nd book also had a lot of flaws and I don't stand by everything I said in there nowadays"
                    -   Side note about conflicts of interests (e.g. in professor selling their own book to students): "Conflicts of interest are problematic, but not inherently wrong; they're concerning because it might affect your judgement, but there are ways to manage it or to demonstrate why it wouldn't affect you"
            -   So, in summary, private associations are groups that join together freely for their own enjoyment/etc. within the group, and not for any ulterior motives
        -   CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS are outward-facing and try to benefit those OUTSIDE the group itself, like a public art group, or Goodwill, or World Wildlife Fund, etc.
            -   "These aren't hard-and-fast distinctions; my contra dance group might have a fundraising event to support the arts, for instance, and while that partially benefits us it also helps others. Similarly, some people might join the band just to have fun playing music, while other members might think of the band as enriching people's lives with music"
        -   POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS are un-coerced groups that join together to try and influence the operations of the state (or the market, in some cases), like interest groups, or Black Lives Matter, or the NRA. How do you make your group's voice heard in politics?
            -   Again, these groups try to get the attention of political actors and voters to voice issues or solutions that they believe are important; they try to bring their perspective to those in power and thereby influence how politics are going

-   Importantly, though, Young thinks that we NEED the apparatus and coercive power of the state to do certain things, ESPECIALLY when it comes to promoting self-development and eliminating inequality
    -   As an example, Young gives the civil rights movement - sometimes the state needs to tell people to fall in line!
    -   In a Democratic state, going back to Plato, there's been a concern of these powers falling out of whack and becoming unbalanced; Young thinks this is going to be a messy process

-   Now, an important question: is social media serving as a substitute for the public sphere? Is it a good one? "I'm personally skeptical, based on the norms of twitter and such"

-   Alright, see y'all on Monday