Once more, with passion this time

Once upon a time there was a tallish man who trundled about for a while and wondered what it was like on the other side of things. As much as anything, that is likely what this little coy, over-the-shoulder look, chopping block is about. There are mysteries to be solved and those that have been laid to rest, but the "why" of some things may simply never be addressed, for that apparently is the nature of today's world. In 1893, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim published The Division of Labor in Society wherein he introduced the concept of "anomie" - by this he meant to describe a condition of "deregulation" in society. The rules on how people ought to act and react in the social weave of things, he argued, had (or were) broken down and people no longer knew what they might actually rightly expect from others in society. Put simply, the norms of society, the customs and mores that help - along with the opposable thumb of course - separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom (oh sure, there are animals that might be better conservationists and selfless advocates of other species, or possessed of advanced language skills, or those marked by a surprisingly subtle self-recognition, even winged creatures capable of fairly advanced arithmetic but nowhere else in nature does it all come together quite like in the package called homo sapien baby!) had been made unclear, hazed, or perhaps even simply wiped away by the forces of modernity. For Durkheim, anomie occurred when there was great change or abrupt disruption in society - serious economic depression, political upheaval, or the shattering impact of war - I wonder if there be parallels here. Perhaps we'll have to see.