Group membership is defined by shared beliefs. Shared religion, shared nationality, shared morality. Group membership is never based on reality. For example, there is no group that identifies itself by its belief in gravity. The concept is too universal. What it means to be a group is to hold a minority belief.
Science has no social groups. There are professional societies, but none provide the kind of social and economic support of a religion of the same size as those societies.
Pedestrians have no social groups. On the other hand, live action role-playing groups like Vampire: The Masquerade or Dungeons & Dragons do form communities. There are more pedestrians than vampires, and pedestrians arguably face greater danger. This shows that sharing a minority view is more important than sharing need.
A religion is an example of a belief system around which a social group can form. The people to whom you may turn in times of adversity are people with whom you share a minority opinion. Even in a region in which everyone is a member of the same religion, the only social groups come from splinter groups and denominations. The ideas which differentiate you from the main religion is what makes you a group. It is not a coincidence that most religious wars occur between factions of the same religion. In fact, the crazier the shared belief, the more cohesive the group becomes. Why? The group feels exclusion and persecution, and therefore rallies a defence. Every ideological community is therefore some craziness defending itself from some other craziness (or from reality).
The Reality of Crazy
A person, who is not a member of a crazy group, is nevertheless subject to the collective action of crazy groups. The reason is that collective action is real. It changes reality, even if it is not motivated by reality: A holy war is nevertheless a war – persecution of sin is nevertheless persecution.
This is the conclusion: the reason logic and truth shall never win over a society is that there is no possible society based on things that are self-evident. If it could happen, it would have happened by now; logic and truth are not new concepts.
Civilization
Civilization is a different phenomenon. Civilization determines how people manage resources and distribute the benefits. It is the relationship that people collectively have to reality.
A civilization provides the institutions — the banks, the schools, the food, the tools — and that works with all brands of craziness. People of different religions use the same post offices. Civilization determines how people settle differences among themselves. All citizens, regardless of craziness, are subject to the same legal system.
When we speak of societal change, we are actually speaking of civilizational change. We are speaking of the laws and institutions that govern people of wildly different world views. It is no accomplishment to establish a single world view. In fact, that is frightening, if that world view is not your own. It is an accomplishment to nurture the growth of civilization.
