Irreconcilable conflict gives society its texture, durability, and resilience

Evidence

Within the realms of culture and society, conflict is tonic and constructive. The different worlds of culture are not really antagonistic to one another; they conflict only insofar as they compete for attention and resources. The irreconcilable differences among them are the source of the greatest richness and profundity in life. Similarly, the conflicts among individuals and between different formal principles are the preconditions for a determinate structure in society. They give society texture, durability, and resilience. The desire for a social world of perfect harmony is thus fundamentally misguided. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 93

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: This directly supports the essay’s causal chain: the very tension that produces the blasé attitude and civil inattention is, for Simmel, also what gives urban society its resilience — a tension the essay’s pessimistic reading of isolation might need to acknowledge.
• DEEPTHINKING: A genuine paradigm inversion: social harmony is not the ideal state but a recipe for weakness; conflict is constitutive. Resists one-sentence summary.
• XREF: connects to: Urban tolerance is tempered with an acceptance of conflict and pain; Conflicts and problems serve life independently of ever being solved — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 868; Conflict destructive at one level can integrate the larger group — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 280 (+9 more)

Related

• Urban tolerance is tempered with an acceptance of conflict and pain (similarity 0.88)
• Conflict is a positive force distinct from mere indifference (similarity 0.85)
• Conflict destructive at one level can integrate the larger group (similarity 0.85)
• Conflicts and problems serve life independently of ever being solved (similarity 0.82)
• Societies require a mix of discord and harmony to take determinate shape (similarity 0.81)
• Social institutions are peace treaties between imitation and individual differentiation. (similarity 0.81)
• The state recovered lost social direction by constructing a unified internal enemy (similarity 0.81)
• Forced unification into large structures intensifies differentiation and repulsion among parts. (similarity 0.81)
• Simmel saw cultural evolution producing diverse incommensurable worlds, not unified humanity (similarity 0.80)
• Simmel’s conflicts are mostly productive rather than tragic (similarity 0.80)
• The tension between life and form drives cultural change. (similarity 0.79)
• Civil society may be structured by perpetual war between forces (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Conflict is a positive force distinct from mere indifference #corroborates (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 276
• Conflict destructive at one level can integrate the larger group #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 280
• The clash-of-civilizations paradigm serves to prolong dominance #expands (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 233
• Situation-level symbolic transactions can influence society’s broader reproduction #expands (0.50)
• Material and social reproduction occur simultaneously and inseparably #expands (0.50)