Anthonie Holslag This is a very interesting question and led me to read about Durkheim on Wikipedia. I have not studied sociology so my views are that of a layman on this subject.

He lived more than 100 years ago and tried to make sense of the workings of society. We live in a very different world now where the internet and television and media in general have had a profound effect. This in terms of the financial management of the economy and in terms of the influence on the individual.

I do take your point about genocide: It would seem that the idea of social norms and standards and a social conscience should prevent genocide.

Why it has failed to do that on several occasions during the last 100 years is then a good question. I think a major factor is the failure of international society to deal with dictatorship.

Durkheim was in favour of standards of social conscience and if this were applied today we would see a much greater role the United Nations in preventing dictators. The USA amended its constitution in the 1950s to limit the term of a leader to a total of 10 years. The UN should be setting guidelines for a.written constitution for every country to follow to avoid extended terms of office which inevitably lead to conflict.

In the time of Durkheim, the primary means of social cohesion was religion. This is not helpful internationally as religious differences are more likely to lead to conflict and even genocide.

What we need are guiding principles that we can all share:

Preprint Openness

Richard

Thank you so much. This is powerful.