I firmly believe in the premises of rationality, perfectibility,
and mutability; however, having traveled throughout 17 countries to date, I believe,
that to some extent, they are most observable in more developed societies. For
instance, it is not as easy to observe the mutability premise throughout the
greater continent of Africa because as a third world continent, it is overpowered by extreme
poverty. This does not equate to dispel
the premise, quite the contrary. It is
just to say that to remove someone from their environmental factors to observe
the improvement in their physical and psychological circumstances is not
readily accomplished or observed.
Many social institutions are based on these premises throughout
our world, but none more than countries with democratic government systems,
which although structured in a hierarchical manner, operate under the
rationality premise and rely heavily upon logical analysis to arrive at decisions.
Other non-governmental environments including small and large corporations,
non-profit organizations, and others follow this model and rely upon this
premise, also.
I find that a majority of institutions around the world are based on at least one of the premises. Religious are based around perfectibility, universities around rationality, and a majority of other-cultural classes, like religion and language, around mutability. Additionally, I find mutability to be more easily observed when someone is placed in a culture different from their own, like an American living in Great Britain for a few years - they'll eventually adopt a number of their beliefs and cultural views.
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