The
Relationship Between Individuals And Society:
Should
Public Interest Builds on Individual Sacrifice?
Cheng-Yung
Che (Tim Cheng)
National
Central University
Abstract
This paper is
mainly focus on the issue about the individual sacrifice for society, in other
words, the public interest. The reason why I want to study this issue is the news
in 2012. The urban renewal was launched in Taipei City. Many buildings had to
been dismantled to build the news. In the period, some residents refused to
give up their original houses. Therefore, a series of problems showed up. The
most famous case was the Wen-Lin Yuan case. The Wang family resisted the urban
renewal. However, their house was still dismantled finally. Therefore,
countless protest activities appeared. I think urban renewal possesses its
positive effect for public development. However, the news about this case makes
me think about the issues about individual sacrifice and public interest. Which
one is more important? Should public interest builds on individual sacrifice?
This is a serious issue that the society and every individual should highly
take care of it.
The
Relationship Between Individuals And Society: Should Public Interest Builds on Individual Sacrifice?
In the present world, most people live in group, such as family,
society, and nation. People know that they can get more power when getting
together. They live and help each other. With gathering, people can do more
things that they can’t do when they are alone. As time goes on, groups become
bigger and more complicated. To manage it well, rules and norms are established
to maintain the order and public interest. A person has to obey the common
rules in group. However, rules mean limitation to private part. A person can’t
always do anything he or she wants to do. People have to sacrifice their own
interests or rights for public interest or order. In other words, public
interest is built from individual sacrifice. But sometimes, basic private right
or interest are violated, and both sides defend their interest, There may be a
serious conflict.
Here is a significant case about public and individual
interests. In 2012, Taipei City launched urban renewal. During the activity,
many people’s houses must be dismantled. The government promised to give the
people who agree to dismantle new houses. However, a Wang family disagreed.
They protested against the city government and the constructor continuously. On
the other hand, some householders agreed with the urban renewal. They moved
away from their old houses and waited for the new houses. Nevertheless, because
of the disapproval of Wang family, the plan stagnated. Those householders
didn’t know when they could go home. Finally, Wang family’s house was
dismantled in 2012.
The incident revealed a noticeable problem between public
and individual interest. Both sides simply wanted to defend their interests.
However, if one of them doesn't make a concession, the other one can’t be
achieved. As the rising of individual consciousness, the public power can’t
violate personal freedom and right arbitrarily. From another angel, a society
is composed of many individuals. The public interests may be considered many
individuals' interests. People know to sacrifice their individual interest for
bigger interest. For instance, the householders who agreed gave up their
original houses and removed out. However, they knew they could get new houses.
It’s a hard issue to gain the most interest for society with least loss of
individual interest.
According to Kozlov
(1997), individuals' rights should be protected. However, if the individuals
violate the interests of the society, the latter one should be concerned first.
Every individual definitely has his or her rights and freedom. Nevertheless,
there is a prerequisite that a person must not do harm to the well-being and
safety of other people, or he or she will be considered giving up the rights
that a normal person originally has. People shouldn't always take care of
individuals' rights and ignore the whole.
In today’s
world, everyone lives in a big society. It is impossible to live without any
connection among other people. In other words, everything a person does may
bring about some influence to the people around him or her. Some influence may
be nothing. However, some may cause serious problems among people. When the
conflict between individual and society relates to fundamental rights or public
interests, things will be more complicated. If a person committed a crime, his
or her rights may be deprived like the boy in the article. It seems like the
punishment or cost after his crime. But, if a person who doesn’t commit any
crime, but suffers the threat to his or her basic rights from the society, we
may think what is wrong with the society or the person. In the case of Wen-Lin
Yuan(文林苑),
the Wangs’ house was planned as urban renewal area. They refused that. They
hoped their house could be removed from the renewal area. However, the
construction company didn't agree with it. With the deadlock between Wang
family and the construction company, the whole plan fell into difficulty.
Later, the Wangs’ house was pulled down, and the urban renewal kept going. In
fact, there was no one got benefited in this case. Every individual has right
of habitation. Nevertheless, the Wangs’ and other householders' right were all
violated.
The Wen-Lin Yuan(文林苑) case proclaims that the dispute between society and individuals.
Everyone just wanted to defend their rights and interests. Who was wrong? Who
was right? Or the laws and policies had problems? No matter what the reason
was, people should avoid making the same mistakes and find a solution to such
problems.
The conflicts between
individuals' and society's interests are hard to solve. Individuals may claim
that they have inviolable interests. The side of society may emphasize its
priority. No one is willing to make concession easily. How to gain the most
interests and lessen violation to both sides? Hsu and Chen (2012) point out
that the solution to this kind of conflicts is communication and empathy and
finding the balance between society and individuals. Basically, no one is
willing to lose his or her interests. The best situation is everyone gets what
he or she wants and has no loss. Individuals have innate interests that no one
can violate (Hsu & Chen, 2012). People establish society and its norms to
bind everyone together. Therefore, they follow the norms that are actually
needed for maintaining and gaining public interests.
Generally speaking,
society's interests don't come into existent without reasons. It must have some
foundation. This foundation just comes from individuals. For example, if people
want to manage the garbage collection, they may establish the correlative rules
that people can only throw out their garbage in fixed sites and time.
Discarding garbage arbitrarily is inadmissible. The cost of this action is
inconvenience to individuals. They have to go to specific sites in time instead
of anywhere and anytime. That is a restriction, and even a sacrifice of rights
and convenience. On the other hand, this measure brings a clean public space.
You won't see discarded garbage everywhere. It's not only for society's own
good but also individuals'. Everyone shares the public spaces. Sometimes there
are some people don't obey the rules. After communication and education, this
insubordination disappears gradually.
Of course the interests are
desirable. However, they are not free. Sacrifice is usually necessary no matter
what the type is. The problems are how much the cost of a society's policy
decision and how much individuals can sacrifice. It can be nothing or a matter
of life and death. Society's interests may mean many individuals' interests.
When the majority and minority fail to meet each other and want to defend
respective interests, the conflicts start. The minority may surrender to the
majority. Also, the latter may give way to the former. Thus, it is important to
understand the limits of individuals’ right and society’s authority.
In following paragraphs, I discuss the relationship between individuals
and society with a book. On Liberty is a book written by John S. Mill. The main idea of this
book is to elaborate and approve the value of human freedom and rights. There
is a chapter which called "Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over
the Individual". In this chapter, the author discussed the relationship
between individual and society. Actually, there is a connection between
the former chapter and the chapter I will focus on. The former one argued the
importance of individuality. However, the author foresaw that it would cause friction and even conflict with the
public side. Therefore, he elaborated the ways which individuals and society
should get along with each other.
First, he admitted that
some parts of individual in life belong to society, and others belong to him or
herself in this chapter. A person absolutely has individual rights and
interests. As they don’t hurt the interests of other people, an individual’s
rights and interests can have an inviolable space to work. Many people want to
get maximal benefit. However, this sometimes may bring harm to other people.
For example, a person wants to play karaoke at night. Unfortunately, this act
breaks the silence of others. His or her neighbors won’t appreciate it and that
is not correct. Before exercising right, a person has to make sure that people
around him or she won’t suffer any inconvenience or harm.
Even though the
individual rights and interests are important for a person, it doesn't mean
that people can be an egocentric who only cares about himself or herself. The
selfless contribution from individual is needed by society. Every public matter
or development needs many individuals’ participation. In this way, the society
can gain maximal interests. Besides, an individual who lives in society has the
obligation to return the favor to it in any ways. Actually, everyone in society
gets much benefit from it. A person may be protected by society or enjoy the
use of the contribution from other people, such as public facilities. A person
doesn’t have to pay and also can make use of them. Therefore, returning to the
society is an individual’s obligation.
In the modern
world, many things are different from those in the era which John S. Mill lived
in. In the past, public interest is always superior to individual interest.
However, as the raise of concept of human right, more and more people fight
against the priority of public interest. This brings many conflicts. Therefore,
solving the conflict between individual and society becomes a crucial issue in the
modern world. Without doubt, individuals’ interest can be considered a part of
public interest. Therefore, how to gain public interest with the minimized loss
of individuals’ interest is an important issue for people and leading class.
When discussing the relationship
between individuals and society, public policy is an important element among
them. A method of government which influences public and individuals very much
is public policy, such as taxation and mandatory education. It is created to
achieve public interests. Meanwhile, it will bring great influence to
individuals. Public policy is in the practical level. However, there are still
many investigations about its theory. The following paragraphs will discuss the
concept of public policy and the possible situation when it works.
From the word “public”
policy, we can know that this conduct relates to common people in a society,
not just specific people. Public policy is often considered to possess positive
effect to public interest. However, a problem comes up. Countless experts and
scholars have debated the so-called “public interest” from then till now.
British scholar Bentham considered that public interest is the maximal
accumulation of individuals’ interests and happiness. However, this argument has
been overthrown by later scholars. Because of different backgrounds, customs,
and personal values, every person may have different ways of looking at
interest. For example, a person likes object A, but other person doesn’t like
it. In fact, public interest is a blur concept and hard to define what it is
exactly. It can be various ideas across culture and time. Therefore, some
people even think that public interest doesn’t exist (Wang, n.d.) However, most
of people still believe its existence and it needs every person’s attention and
care. Making every person in a society has a common consensus about ideal
interest is an important way to keep the stability of a society. With this,
people can work for a common public interest together. To achieve public interest,
public policy is a direct and effective way. It is usually established and
executed by lead-class, such as the government. Every government in the world
highly cares about the public policy issue. It can influence from individuals,
societies, and even to nations.
When a public
policy is executed, some people may think it brings them inconvenience and even
harm. They certainly think it’s the violation to their individual interest and
try to resist the “public” force. The reason that people resist may be that
people can’t adapt to it and feel different from their old custom (Tsai, C.C.
& Huang, C.Y. 2002). Actually, it is a common phenomenon when a new public
policy is executed. However, there is no accomplishment without sacrifice. For
the public interest, individuals must have to sacrifice and devote themselves
to some degree. Because of the “public”, a person has to limit his or her
freedom and gives up individual interest. The reason for this is the limitation
of resource. It’s sometimes hard to take individuals and society into
consideration at the same time. Besides, public policy is not just the issue of
government. There is no completely perfect policy. Every people in a society
should take participation into the operation of a policy. People can supervise
the formulation and execution of it and help it work toward right direction.
Conclusion
The relationship
between public interest and individual sacrifice is a hard topic to discuss. To
study it, every element and detail should be cared about. It is hard to judge
which is right, wrong, or more important.
Protecting Individual interest is also an important part of public interest.
However, I think sacrifice is inevitable when developing public interest.
Because of the limited resource, if you want to get something, it will cost you
something from yourself. Therefore, people should make sure that every way to
gain public interest is work in reasonable and proper situation. If individual
sacrifice cannot be avoided, it should runs under an acceptable and legal system,
and the compensation for the loss is also necessary. Thus a society and its
interest can develop toward positive direction, and the individuals can live
with the least worry and loss of their interest.
Reference
Public interest.
(n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from
Urban renewal.
(n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from
Huang, C.H.
& Chen, E.H. & Lin, M.F. (2012, March 29). Debate for three years// The
Wangs’ house in Shilin is dismantled under the resistance during Wen-Lin Yuan
urban renewal. The Liberty Times.
Retrieved from
Kozlov, J.
(1997). Society’s rights should often take priority over individuals’.
Retrieved October 22, 2013, from
Hsu, R.J. &
Chen, A.C. (2012). Watch in left and right: How to solve the conflict between
individual and public interest. Taiwan
Lihpao Daily. Retrieved from
Mill,
J.S. (1869). Of the limits to the authority of society over the individual. On Liberty. Retrieved November
24, 2013, from
Wang,
Y.S. (n.d. ). The theory of environmental
scheme. Retrieved December 22, 2013, from
Tsai,
C.C. & Huang, C.Y. (2002). Agenda-setting research on public policy: A cast study in
Taipei. Retrieved December 22, 2013, from
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