No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. C.S. Lewis
“Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.” ― Jane Addams
“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” ― Marshall McLuhan
If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people. Marx, Reflections of a Young Man (1835)
Behind the mask of indifference lies bottomless misery, and behind apparent callousness, despair. John Bowlby
“A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.” Dante
"There is nothing more tragic for a human being than to suddenly realize that he has never felt the need for freedom until he loses it.", Fyodor Dostoevsky
Indifference is the dead weight of history. Antonio Gramsci
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not through mechanical aids, but through an infinite anticipation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our deepest sleep. I know of no fact more encouraging than the unquestionable ability of human beings to elevate their lives through conscious effort. It is one thing to be able to paint a particular picture or carve a statue, and thus make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we see, which, in a moral sense, we can do. Thoreau
“For anyone who loves intensely lives not in himself but in the object of his love, and the further he can move out of himself into his love, the happier he is.” Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
“If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus your attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble to pay attention to them.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
“There is nothing more mysterious than a TV left on in an empty room. It is even stranger than a man talking to himself or a woman standing dreamily by her stove. It is as if another planet is communicating with you. Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is: a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its own message.” (Baudrillard, America)
The heroes of declining nations are always the same, the athlete, the singer, or the actor. Today, the word “celebrity” is used to refer to a comedian or a soccer player, not a statesman, a general, or a literary genius. John Glubb, The Fate of Empires.
Evil is whatever distracts us. Franz Kafka
Through fire and ice. - Dante
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. - Proverbs 27:17.
“But this element of failure is a very condition of his life; one can never dream of eliminating it without immediately dreaming of death. This does not mean that one should consent to failure, but rather one must consent to struggle against it without respite.”, Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity
Danger alone reveals our own resources, our virtues, our armor and weapons, our spirit, and compels us to be strong., Nietzsche
There is no force in this world greater than that of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained., W. E. B. Du Bois
A revolutionary career does not lead to banquets and honorary titles, interesting research, and a professor’s salary. It leads to misery, disgrace, ingratitude, prison, and a journey into the unknown, illuminated only by an almost superhuman belief. ― Max Horkheimer
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”, Nietzsche
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”, Confucius
He who is brave is free. - Seneca
In this section, the following dimensions of balance will be addressed: citizenship, struggle, awareness, and focus.
Citizenship: Heroic citizenship, is the pursuit of the good life by taking on responsibility and sacrificing oneself for the society of which one is a part, guided by a universalist/Aristotelian ethic that transcends local conventions. Heroism is embedded in the act of creating citizenship.
Attention: Outward inward lookingness: the focus is on the external world, where one is driven by a purpose beyond oneself, with a strong concern for others that becomes the foundation for caring for one’s own self.
Focus: Specialized Systematics: where there is a systematic approach combined with specialization in how one acts, thinks, and seeks the good.
Struggle: Disconsensus is a balance between dissensus and consensus. The actor strives for freedom from domination in all forms, where struggle through cooperation and conflict is balanced. To approach disconsensus, one must practice both finding productive conflicts and productive collaborations.
Moral training. “I have found little that is ‘good’ about human beings on the whole. In my experience, most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all.” Even though Freud wrote this misanthropic statement, others still see that there is potential for improvement in human beings. The sociology of morality is needed to understand why we engage in moral behavior and how we react to the suffering of others. Sociological moral training is inspired, for example, by Martha Nussbaum’s view that culture was a form of “moral education” in antiquity and still is today. Sociological moral education is linked to becoming more moral in one’s private life and serves as a central part of civic education (Bohlin, 2018). Moral education can be achieved by cultivating moral imagination and empathy through, for example, literature, philosophy, journalism, and films. For example, engaging with tragedies in culture helps recalibrate what we consider important to care about. Tragedies teach us that it is anger and sorrow we should feel in the face of major, important issues, not minor inconveniences in everyday life (Nussbaum, 2011). One can also try performing moral actions that one is not accustomed to, that is, experimenting with one’s morality to build wisdom. These need not be grand gestures but can be small habits of “micro, virtue.” At the same time, however, one can get lost in these small moral actions, which can prevent one from pursuing larger moral projects and lead to petty and short, sighted moralizing.
As social animals, we need guidance on how to pay attention to the world and where we should direct our gaze. We can choose “attention mentors” who enable us to take control of our “optical socialization,” which we would otherwise leave to chance (Zerubavel, 2015, 65). Attention mentors can be people who have developed a keen eye for something in the world: art, culture, science, entrepreneurship, or philosophy. We use these people as mentors to direct our attention toward what may be of value. Children can also serve this role by directing our attention toward play. Animals, by exemplifying how to be in the present moment.
Virtue-Based Living: Instead of living one’s life based on emotional goals such as happiness, pleasure, peace, and love, one lives based on virtues that can be seen as part of the good life. This does not mean there is no room for any form of hedonism, but even hedonism can be made more virtuous through, for example, moderation and balance. Way of life is a moral relationship to one’s life, in contrast to viewing one’s life as the outcome of a “lifestyle” without moral claims (Weber in McKerracher, 2023). A way of life frames one’s own life as part of a larger project in which one is bound to other people by duties, principles, and values, in contrast to the weaker bonds that come with “lifestyle enclaves” (Bellah et al., 1984) such as pleasure, self, interest, taste, group affiliation, entertainment, and hobbies. A way of life involves having moral ambition (Bregman, 2025) and not merely the ambition to climb hierarchies in a company, politics, or status hierarchies.
Identify your strengths and weaknesses sociologically through ABT. Look at a list of various virtues. Which ones are you better or worse at embodying? One virtue that is sorely lacking in today’s public sphere is humility (Berglund, 2026; Friedman, 2020). This lack of humility manifests as an arrogant conviction that one has fully understood the world as it is and can easily solve various problems. The other side of the coin is courage as a missing virtue, the courage to be open to the possibility that one is wrong and to endure the process of actually learning how things really are.
Incorporate civic engagement into different aspects of your life: relationships, work, and leisure should be linked to civic engagement. Otherwise, civic engagement risks becoming an “extra” task that isn’t integrated into the rest of your life. The lack of civic engagement linked to work, leisure, and relationships is a major reason why problems arise. Without a social connection in one’s work, it can feel alienating and overly focused on one’s own career and self, actualization. Without a social connection in relationships, they become too hedonistic and boring, lacking involvement in an adventure greater than oneself; the same applies to leisure activities. Without civic engagement, work, centered life and private struggles dominate. You can begin to center civic engagement in your life by taking small steps. At the same time, commitment to society must be approached with humility. Those who throw themselves into civic engagement without humility will likely only reinforce an already dominant hyperpolitics and hooliganism, running the risk of worsening society through their involvement (Jäger, 2026; Brennan, 2016).
Craft Citizenship, citizenship must take time. One cannot approach it with the idea that citizenship and political work can be done quickly. That idea represents a “consumerized” form of citizenship, where the role of the citizen is merely to make demands or express wishes to politicians, who then fulfill those requests. Craft citizenship draws inspiration from Richard Sennett’s ideas about how much we can learn from craftspeople (2002, 2013). The craftsperson works with a long, term perspective and develops expert knowledge in a specific field, rather than being a fleeting generalist who jumps from one position to another and is judged more on their potential than on actual expertise. “Craft citizenship” emphasizes that we need to develop various skills and practice them regularly. These include the ability to collaborate, build alliances, inspire oneself and others, solve problems, listen attentively, channel others’ opinions, simplify issues into clear solutions (without oversimplifying), and recognize what is possible at the moment, and so on. This is best learned through “learning by doing”, it must be put into practice. This practice can take place, for example, in social movements, youth political parties, or by participating in local politics. It involves practicing being part of the public debate over the long term, such as by maintaining your own blog, X account, or YouTube channel where you share your own thoughts.
Civic education. The historian of ideas Bohlin argues that education is often viewed too narrowly, often as merely cultural education, which overlooks a broader civic education linked to a wider range of knowledge and skills (2018). Bohlin writes that this is what universities should contribute to more, but many students fail to embrace education and instead hold views such as “philosophy is vague,” even though the purpose of philosophy is to clarify ethics, knowledge, understanding, existence, and so on (Bohlin, 2018). Civic education is a form of socialization through engagement with various thinkers in the humanities: sociologists, economists, historians, philosophers, ethnologists, psychologists, literary scholars, authors, and political thinkers. Civic education requires taking a broad view of what citizenship entails. Civic education is a continuous process of shaping what your purpose beyond yourself should be, which in itself is a journey of learning and experimentation to discover this.
Political work. Citizenship is work. The citizen who never engages in this work, which can be tedious and unrewarding, will usually accomplish nothing of value, but will remain merely a participant in opinion, forming and thinking. Political work takes many forms: union involvement, activism such as civil disobedience and demonstrations, petition drives, building forums and debates/discussions both offline and online, working groups and study circles, and developing ideas. Political work must constantly be analyzed to determine whether it truly creates value; if we neglect critical reflection, we may eventually become disillusioned and cynical after a period of no results. Political work can feel unfamiliar and even wrong because workplaces are often structured so that political work is concentrated among leadership/management and is not even described as political, it is simply “business”, even though it has a major impact on society (Collins, 1979). A large part of the political work that needs to be done involves strengthening democracy and the public sphere. Deliberative aspects of the public sphere are lacking (Fishkin, 2025; Landemore, 2026). Political work that focuses solely on mobilizing votes for a particular party reinforces a public sphere in which ritualized conflict takes precedence over deliberation (Berglund, 2026).
Jaspers’ metaphysical wound is something we may need to confront. The realization that the world is in many ways cruel and that we have been thrown into it can become a kind of “metaphysical wound” that may lead to indifference. We need to carry with us the realization that this is a wound and a grief we have had to face, but that we still need to be contributors to making things different. To have the strength to carry on, one needs support from communities above all, those centered around the civic struggle. Then one’s actions and life are directed toward confronting and trying to heal that wound. Furthermore, communities centered around the civic struggle can provide emotional energy (Collins, 2004).
What roles do you have that compete with citizenship? Have you taken on the role of the cynic in social contexts, the one who doesn’t care, or someone who finds meaning and security only in roles connected to home or work? What expectations are placed on you that you may need to challenge? What can you add without rejecting the roles you currently hold? What can be changed and supplemented? Heroization: The heroic dimension has withered away in many people’s lives (Becker, 1973). Embracing an identity as a hero does not mean believing you are a Messiah who can save the world. It is a heroism grounded in humility and citizenship. It is courage in both small and large acts. It is a purpose beyond oneself. Write down what your purposes beyond yourself are.
“Third, space, ification.” Engage in public discourse, especially in the physical “third space” (Oldenberg, 2001). Habermas is one of the scholars who has demonstrated how central public debate is to modern citizenship. Some historians argue that the ideas of the Enlightenment stem, in part, from gatherings in coffeehouses, beer halls, and wine salons in London, Berlin, and Paris. In these encounters between people, rumors, idle chatter, and political debates could all be exchanged. It was in these gatherings in the “third space”, that is, a place other than home or the workplace, that people could have encounters leading to political conversations and strengthening the political imagination. Over the past 50 years, the prevalence of third spaces has declined (Putnam, 2000) and been replaced by a pale substitute in the form of social media. Where are these “third spaces” to be found? Today, bars are venues for intoxication within narrow circles of friends, with little room for unexpected encounters that might lead to meaningful political conversations. Yet simply being there, opening up, and transforming the spaces that exist into more public living rooms is a socially revitalizing activity.
Another way to participate in public life is by reading newspapers, blogs, books, and social media. Reading was central to citizenship and individuality in 19th, century America, an old form of individuality that has been replaced by a new one, which is more focused on interests and superficiality (Furedi, 2015; Elliot, 2009). Reading was then more widespread than it had been previously or would be in the future, having previously been the preserve of a “reading class” that was few in number (Furedi, 2015). Citizens become dependent on the media they consume. If one reads nothing longer than social media posts, one becomes dependent on social media as a source. Similarly, one becomes dependent on newspapers if one does not read texts longer than news articles. Reading the news is an important skill for informed citizenship because it provides a sense of the pulse of public debate, but with it comes the risk of myopia and “news addiction” (Taleb, 2012), which can prevent one from developing more systematic thinking with perspectives beyond what one’s newspaper is currently discussing. The book as an artifact is needed as a companion for the citizen. Reading itself has positive effects, such as a sense of calm similar to meditation in some studies, fostering more complex thoughts, and an ability to think in longer chains of reasoning that can lay the groundwork for a more nuanced, less black, and, white way of thinking, one in which we are instead driven by a curiosity about what research and philosophy might surprise us with.
Exercises for conflict and resistance.
Take on the civic struggle. This is a broader vision than, for example, merely engaging in class struggle. Other struggles exist regarding the degree and manner in which freedom, coordination, risk, meaning, happiness, time, emotions, and belonging should be addressed. The civic struggle should also be distinguished from what has come to dominate many people’s lives without being widely discussed in public discourse. That is, people are trapped in the private struggle within the private sphere. This is a result of withdrawing from the civic sphere primarily as a form of protection (Sennet, 2002). The civic struggle can degenerate and become brutalized by hooliganism and an excessive spirit of hostility and the desire to triumph over others. But civic struggle, when one sees oneself as a fellow citizen, involves a responsibility to both cooperate and engage in conflict with others in a balanced way. The most common way civic struggle degenerates today is when we show up as grumpy, dissatisfied customers, clients who come to complain and are certain they are in the right. We engage a little with these complainers and the dissatisfied, who demonstrate little capacity for citizenship, and then, when things don’t go our way, the dissatisfied retreat back into the private sphere.
Don’t brutalize others, because not only does the other person suffer, but you also brutalize yourself. You create suffering; you have become the monster, perhaps because you set out to fight monsters. Do not brutalize, but enter the fray. Do not let the brutalization you have experienced become an excuse for brutalizing others. Get even by becoming better. If society has let you down, do not tear it down, instead, make it better.
Identify the various power strategies used against you and through you. Are you privy to the agenda, and do you have control over it? How do you exercise power over something? Do you have civic control? To what extent are you exposed to various ideologies that obscure the fact that power is being exercised over you? How are you subjectified? For example, are you subjectified through your gender to obey in a certain way? Identify various Machiavellian strategies that you encounter daily. Learn about different power techniques so you can recognize them when they’re used against you. See the power techniques directed against you. See how distraction is a major conspiracy against you and your interests. The entertainment industry is power, but it seduces and makes itself seem innocent. Launch a counterattack against the power techniques. They’re used against you all the time. You are surrounded by power. It is when you move that the power techniques coil around you, when you try, when you do something different, that they become even more noticeable. It is when you try to bring about change that you realize how tired you are of the prevailing society, how little time and energy you have left (McKerracher, 2023).
Use power techniques to improve the pursuit and creation of the good life. These are power techniques that should be used in a balanced way, a humanistic Machiavellianism achieved by identifying genuine enemies primarily at the structural level.
Build alternatives and social capital. Instead of resisting only at your job, resist by investing energy in building alternatives outside of work.
Reduce internal conflict and build self, solidarity. There are two dominant imbalances in people: either being so conflict, ridden that one is paralyzed by doubt, or having too little conflict and doubt within oneself, leading one to act with hubris or without empathy for others. People can also oscillate between these different positions. If we have major intrapsychic conflicts, our emotional energy, momentum, and sense of flow in the world will decrease significantly (Summer, Effler, 2004, 2002; Collins, 2004). Self, solidarity is necessary to have the strength to act in resistance and in the struggle to resolve injustices and problems in the world. Self, solidarity does not require that all internal conflict be eliminated, but it can often be reduced. It can be difficult to reduce internal conflict because the self is often a construct of different parts that may be in tension with one another. Intrapersonal conflicts can be reduced by: clarifying the various cultural ideals one is trying to achieve and determining whether they conflict with one another (Illouz, 2020); embracing the “will to foolishness,” as Nietzsche put it, which allows us to temporarily set aside doubt and block it at times so that it is not with us all the time; and building momentum through small victories (Collins, 2004), for then our sense of self can see that there is a direction and not just the same old problems, and by trying to enter a state of flow that causes us to lose our sense of self and time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), which reduces the chance for doubt to surface, articulate your values to yourself and others, and through a curiosity about values and an experimental mindset, strive toward a moral life (Berglund, 2026).
Address value conflicts within yourself. It is common today not to acknowledge value conflicts. People tend to think that their view of freedom is the correct one and fail to see that it may conflict with other values or other ways of interpreting the value of freedom.
The “Resistance Is Always Possible” Heuristic. (Paulsen, 2013; Scott, 1990). Resistance is always possible. Look for openings and opportunities for resistance. James Scott cites, for example, jaywalking when it is safe as a way to train oneself to make independent decisions about when it is appropriate to cross a street.
“One day you will be called upon to break a major law in the name of justice and rationality. Everything will depend on it. You have to be ready. How are you going to prepare for that day when it really matters? You have to stay ‘in shape’ so that when the big day comes, you’ll be ready. What you need is “anarchist calisthenics.” Every day or so, break some trivial law that makes no sense, even if it’s just jaywalking. Use your own judgment to decide whether a law is just or reasonable. That way, you’ll stay sharp; and when the big day comes, you’ll be ready.
Develop symbolic dexterity and an understanding of the rules of the game. Resistance must be strategic. It requires strategic compliance with the prevailing structures. You need to choose your battles, for as Gramsci wrote: If you beat your head against the wall, it is your head that breaks and not the wall. The next time you find yourself in what could become a conflict, consider whether you really need to engage in that conflict. Battles are motivating; choose the ones that are most ethical and beneficial for you and society. A meaningless and petty conflict can be replaced with a larger and more heroic one. Most people live lives in which they accept being dominated while simultaneously engaging in intense conflicts in their private struggles. It is important that conflicts not be incorporated (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2007) as “decaffeinated resistance” (de Courteu) and become yet another pseudo, action (Zizek). Be a trickster. Choose your battles. Find the right enemies. Learn from your enemies. Build energy from your enemies. Build energy by sparing the enemy. Find your struggle. Think strategically. Sennett (2013) writes:
Applying minimum force is the most effective way to work with resistance. Just as when working with a knot in wood, so in a surgical procedure: the less aggressive the effort, the greater the sensitivity.
A key factor in being strategic in one’s resistance is learning the rules of the field (Bourdieu in Threadgold, 2021). These rules have emerged within the field through those who can institutionalize them through their own symbolic capital and power. Jackall has described those who are skilled at understanding and navigating these sometimes unspoken rules as possessing “symbolic dexterity” (2010). This dexterity must be developed so that even resistance, struggle, and even attempts at cooperation do not fail, are not taken seriously, and are not viewed as relevant, balanced, reasonable, or appropriate. Every field contains elites who uphold orders that quite often do not support the good life at all or only partially; however, by institutionalizing certain rules of the game, barriers are created that prevent the field from functioning differently. Those with the most power can also influence the rules of the game. Those who resist must rise to a level where they can see through the rules and demonstrate how they fail to support the good life in various ways. If you do not learn the rules of the game in various fields, society will be experienced as an invisible force that influences you in various ways without you being aware of how. You may wonder why things aren’t done differently, but when you point this out, you are not initially in a position to be heard; instead, the way you speak or act is dismissed as irrelevant.
Resist emotional dominance. If you encounter someone who tries to emotionally dominate you, use various techniques to avoid being drawn into that person’s rhythm (Collins & McConnell, 2015). One is to point out what the other person is doing; another is to try to set your own rhythm in the interaction through tone of voice, pace, the way you ask questions, and so on.
Stand for something, but do so humbly, with a curiosity about values and a curiosity about science. Who do you want to be in the civic struggle? What will you live for? What is the purpose of your life? With a manifesto of your values, you can then find direction in your struggle. It is important to combine conviction with a great deal of humility so as not to reproduce a public sphere already dominated by conflict.
Collaboration exercises.
Practice cooperation. Sennett points out that there is far too little training in cooperation (2013).
Cooperative activity is sometimes recommended as a therapy for the clinically depressed. The complexity of the cooperative experience is itself diminished when used as therapy in this way. While visiting a friend in the hospital whose depression had reached suicidal levels, I found the clinic’s staff trying to engage her in simple sing, alongs and kitchen clean, ups with others. (Sennett, 2013)
Cooperation could take place with much greater complexity; instead, many are trapped in a self that is dominated by a lack of willingness to cooperate (Sennett, 2013). An part of good collaboration is the ability to make repairs (Sennett, 2013, 199). Repairs may require improvisation, which can only be learned if one views collaboration as a craft (Sennett, 2013)
Improvisation is the key to radical repairs of this sort; they most often occur through small, surprising changes that turn out to have larger implications. Improvisation occurs in exploring the connections between small repairs and their large consequences. -, Improvisation and incomplete specification connect this kind of technical repair to more radical social experimentation. By design, the settlement houses and the community organizing that followed them in Chicago were incompletely specified. The aim of allowing improvisation was to generate new ways of cooperating, while preserving people’s established sense of being capable and competent. Cooperation on small details set this process of metamorphosis in motion; the communities were meant to carry out their own repair work, rather than rely on an expert repairman, a fixer… (Sennett, 2013).
Part of better cooperation involves practicing informal, everyday diplomacy, which can be difficult to achieve in more formal meetings (Sennett, 2013, 221). Another part involves genuinely wearing a social mask that can:
“enable expression, in addition to providing protective cover. There’s a danger in thinking of everyday diplomacy, which, in its varied forms, makes use of the neutral mask, as mere empty manipulation of others. On the contrary, if we are not focused on revealing or characterizing ourselves, we can fill a shared social space with expressive content.” (Sennett, 2013).
Collaboration requires a long, term commitment in order to develop, as short, term commitments can undermine loyalty and obligations (Sennett, 2013; Jackall, 2010). Collaboration also requires listening to both what is said and what is implied (Sennett, 2013).
Mutual helpfulness. Adam Smith, often called the “father of economics,” has increasingly been identified by many as one of the “fathers” of sociology. Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” that guides our actions in the market and self, interest. Smith is not as well known for his ideas about how central human capacity for sympathy and empathy is to the functioning of society. Smith writes that “a person does not merely wish to be loved, but also to be lovable.” This assertion is supported by research indicating that we feel a strong sense of pride and fulfillment when we perform acts of generosity and help others. Mutual aid is a principle that has been, and continues to be, a guiding force in a large part of human interactions. Historically, this has been expressed in the form of welcoming guests with shelter and food, which has made it possible for people to move away from communities perceived as oppressive (Graeber & Wengrow, 2021). These authors show that there has long been criticism of, for example, European societies where mutual aid is not sufficiently emphasized as a guiding principle, and where obedience, order, control, property, and bureaucracy take precedence. Helpfulness can become something received only from those closest to us in the private sphere or from those in the public sphere who can assist us in achieving our goals.
Maintain some distance from one’s ideological inclinations. If everyone is too strongly attached to their ideology, and especially to a specific, narrow, and one, sided interpretation of that ideology, it becomes very difficult to build cooperation. The German sociologist Niklas Luhmann warned against becoming too closely tied to a particular ideology:
“Ideology claims to be binding for the whole society. This development leads to typical problems. As the complexity of society increases, so do the demands placed on ideology as a framework for solving problems; in particular, there is an incalculable increase in the interdependencies among the individual components of an ideology, whose consistency must continue to be maintained. Changes, accommodations, and revisions within an ideology become markedly difficult, because every small step can have unforeseeable repercussions on the premises upon which it is based. The burdens on the reflexive and opportunistic mechanisms anchored in ideology then become excessive.”, Niklas Luhmann, The Differentiation of Society
Exercises in thoughtful curiosity, both outward, looking and inward, looking.
Empathy and curiosity. Sennett focuses on empathy but also makes room for curiosity when he analyzes what is missing in today’s society, which is poor at cooperating (2013). Nietzsche wrote about a dangerous curiosity that crosses boundaries and seeks out places that carry risk (McCall, 2011). Nietzsche likens the process of seeking truths to climbing a mountain, where one must be able to endure the thin, icy air as one approaches the summit. Curiosity challenges us and can be difficult because it confronts us with things that may be terrible about ourselves and the world around us. Curiosity as a state of mind, however, is the best feeling to have when encountering the unknown and the new, because one seeks to be both surprised and to understand, one is not attached to any preconceived notion of how things must be. Foucault, following in Nietzsche’s footsteps, views curiosity as central to the ability to change oneself (McCall, 2011). Curiosity is not valued as highly as it should be in our culture. It is perfectly acceptable to be indifferent or to have a superficial curiosity, where we spend a little time on something and then move on, a behavior evident in conversations with others and in how we behave on social media. Collins points out that focus is central to generating emotional energy (2000, 2004). Csikszentmihalyi puts it this way:
If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus your attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not inherently so, but because we took the trouble to pay attention to them.
The “External Care” Heuristic (Paulsen, 2020). To take care of yourself, choose something outside of yourself that requires care. Plants, children, institutions, a book to be written, a garden, a friend, a sibling, a parent, a specific political issue, a problem, a project. This external care creates a focus on something else that gives our lives a purpose beyond our own survival and pleasure.
Use boredom as a signal. Barbalet argues that boredom is a feeling that arises when we sense a lack of meaning (1999). Boredom is also a lack of horizons regarding what exists in the world (Rosa, 2019). One has a narrow view of the world. We’ve been tricked into believing, for the moment, that the world is boring, that there isn’t much of significance to discover, so we might as well continue to be half, bored with low, intensity entertainment. Half, boredom or pseudo, entertainment is the great danger in a sea of endless entertainment. We should seek something more than just being bored. Boredom is good because it provides a contrast to being focused on something.
Engage with culture, preferably as complex as possible. Some aspects that artists bring into life: the sublime, deepening the mystery, storytelling, aestheticizing and visualizing the life you want, focusing on something outside yourself that you’re going to create and making yourself a tool, increasing sensitivity to the world around us, wonder, curiosity.
Create, don’t just consume. A perspective that merely consumes will miss out on certain aspects if you engage in any form of creative expression within culture. When you create and consume, your sensitivity is strengthened more than if you merely consume. We must create something ourselves to gain a more powerful perspective. Many have pointed out the importance of emulating an artist in how we shape our lives, of becoming our own “artists of life” and “awakening” ourselves to what life can be. It is one of the most important activities we have: to constantly cultivate a sense of wonder and rouse ourselves from a state of numbness.
When you are a co, creator of culture, the likelihood of experiencing stronger social interaction and emotional resonance increases (Collins, 2004). In a choir, for example, you can feel a collective sense of elation when your own voice is in harmony with the voices of others.
Sociological Life Compass. Within ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), “life compasses” have been developed to help clients gain an overview of how they are faring in different spheres of their lives, what their “life values” are, and how they strive toward them. One variation identifies different spheres of life, each with distinct obstacles that stand in the way of pursuing these life values within those spheres.
The sociological life compass is an exercise that would follow the socio, analysis as a way to synthesize the potential insights that have emerged. The obstacles identified can be linked to the specific parts of the socio, analysis that were conducted. The Life Compass can also be adapted to the goals set forth by various sociological theories. One suggestion is ABT, which aims to establish balance across different spheres. However, the Life Compass is intended to serve as a way to create an overview, so it cannot be overloaded with too much information.
One suggestion for how a sociological Life Compass might be designed is that social engagement is integrated into all the other areas, unlike in the ACT Life Compass, where it is a separate component. This clarifies that all spheres should serve a purpose beyond the individual themselves, an outward concern, a broader perspective. Thus, relationships, work, and leisure must be linked to social engagement in order to have a plan for achieving greater balance in heroic citizenship. Otherwise, social engagement risks becoming an “extra” task that is not integrated into the rest of one’s life. ABT posits that the lack of civic engagement linked to work, leisure, and relationships is a key reason why problems arise (Berglund, 2026).
Practice imagining yourself as a being in a social universe. That perspective, taking is also what sociological meditation does: it encourages us to reflect on the social world. This exercise helps to bring both introspection and outward reflection into greater balance. We look inward with the knowledge that we are part of something larger, and we acknowledge that we cannot find the truth about ourselves within ourselves. Sociological meditation is also a meditation on the agency we possess and that others demonstrate. In other words, there is an awareness that the system is not entirely all, encompassing or completely rational, and that everything we do is incorporated into it, no matter what we do. For this exercise to work, one must develop curiosity and cultivate it toward the social realm. Part of sociological acceptance is thinking in terms of its grandeur, complexity, and the difficulty of understanding it.
The goal is defamiliarization and the creation of wonder, making things exciting, finding closeness in distance, seeing oneself in the spectacle, and seeing the spectacle as something of which one is a part. Thus, one views the world from various sociological perspectives. View it as a prison and a society of control (Foucault), filled with rituals, indeed, everything is a ritual (Collins, 2004), a community of consensus with various functions (functionalist) (Durkheim), filled with conflicts (Marx, Weber, Bourdieu), fields, habitus, capital (Bourdieu), dyads and triads (Simmel), theater (Goffman, 1959), sound analogies, resonance, dissonance, silence, cacophony (Rosa, 2019), time (Rosa, Wajcman, 2015), Coleman (exchanges), roles (role theory and affective role theory) (Scheff), a space for life projects (Giddens, 1991), surrounded by risks (Beck, 1992), ideology (Zizek), a space for various forms of obedience (Paulsen, 2017), the exercise of power and the many faces of power (Lukes, 2021), fictions, myths, social constructions (Simmel, 1971), a space filled with discourses (Foucault), symbols (Baudrillard, 1981)
Another approach is to learn about various proposals regarding what constitutes the most important defining characteristic of society and to study it. The society of measurability (Bornemark, 2018), the work society (Paulsen, 2010), the administrative society (Forsell & Ivarsson, 2014), the society of moral mediocrity (Berglund, 2026), the asymmetrical society (Coleman, 1982), the laboratory society (Beck, 1992), the post, emotional society (Mestrovic, 1996), etc.
Counterfactual thinking, paying attention to what could have been. Paulsen explores various ways of engaging in counterfactual thinking as a researcher, something that people also do on various occasions (Paulsen, 2014). Genuinely utopian counterfactual thinking makes it possible to see what would be different based on what has already proven possible. What aspects of other people’s lives can be incorporated into your own life? What social configurations, which have already been successfully tested, can you help create?
Exercises in specialized systematics.
Read widely. Books and texts of various kinds and genres. In general, most people don’t read enough. During the 20th century, television and social media have been a powerful distraction from reading. Books have the advantage that we can both gain access to certain specialized knowledge, since it can be covered in a single book, and at the same time read multiple books to familiarize ourselves with several fields. Having read three books on a subject means you know more than most people in that field; this applies to almost every field and subject.
Develop multiple interests. The belief that one has only one interest is a way of coping with the loss of the curiosity we had as children. We convince ourselves of this, even though research on how interest and curiosity arise clearly shows that we can become curious about almost anything.
Tackle insidious problems. As soon as you challenge yourself and try to solve complex problems, you’re quickly forced to broaden your areas of interest and read up on various fields to gain a deeper understanding. Specialists can be particularly dangerous in an era dominated by multiple, intertwined crises. Economists and engineers tend to underestimate human aspects, while the humanities may overlook the potential of technology.
The Bridge, Builder: Connect with people from different fields of expertise. As a network sociologist, Robert Burt has demonstrated how information and knowledge can become trapped within closed groups (2005). An innovative and creative person is, in essence, simply someone who can serve as a bridge, builder between different groups that have not yet established connections with others.
Alternating between periods of deeply specialized activities and periods of deeply systematic activities. To be innovative and become competent in a field, we need to think about and learn the specifics. That is what education is for. But we cannot stop there. If we learn only the specifics, we miss out on the potential of new combinations that can arise from a broad education (Epstein, 2021; Bohlin, 2018).
Don’t multitask. Be human and focus on one thing at a time; that’s when our true focus can emerge (Han, 2015). Distraction and triviality are evils that weaken us, both during and after. The level of focus that can be achieved is one where it’s difficult to set aside thoughts, they just keep spinning in your mind. You’ve directed so much focus toward a task that it takes over and lingers even when you’re doing other things. Your purpose in life emerges with a clarity in your gaze.
Deep focus. You are judged by your ability to stay focused for a long time. Deep thoughts arise within that focus, becoming a source of strength. Focus gives you both rest and strength at the same time. Center yourself in that focus, away from the distracted, fragmented, restless, and fiddly life.