***Work in Progress***
the human will be referred to as "man" or as a whole "mankind" and the individual as a "he", but be not mistaken that i am referring to both genders** So if we consider as fact that man is a social being that is shaped by society, then man is a product of his socialization and a product of the society that he was socialized into. The individual varies to a certain degree but pertains to a greater whole that he must subscribe to if he is to function and survive. One of the main purposes of the parent/guardian to the individual child is to socialize that child into a functioning member of society. This, for the most part, is carried out subconsciously by the parent/guardian. Almost without question as to why, almost devoid of critical thought, this is an innate, necessary function of the parent/guardian. As to the particulars of socialization, these vary almost infinitely from a case-by-case example. One parent may allow their child to watch T.V. without control while another may limit the time the child watches T.V. and even the content of what is viewed.
Man is not born socialized. Man must be socialized if he is to be "truly" human. From the standpoint of what we deem "civilized" and "acceptable" social human behavior a baby is for the most part devoid of this. We tend to think this is the case because the individual is merely a baby. In truth, it is not because the individual is a baby per say, it is because the individual has not yet been introduced/taught, made to subscribe to the social norms of society thereby becoming socialized.
If a baby begins to grow into a young child and into adolescence continuing into young adulthood, the individual will remain as socially inept and "clueless" as the day he was born. I refer now to several documented, scientifically and unscientifically studied cases of what has been known as ferral children. Children that were displaced from their families, displaced from all human contact, removed from human society if you will. Reasons for this include but are not limited to war, disease, famine, abuse and neglect. Specific cases include a girl that was raised by a pack of dogs in the back alleys of a poor european nation. When discovered this adolescent girl acted exactly like a dog (to the extent that her anatomy allowed her to act like a dog). She barked, growled, sniffed, walked on all fours, drank from puddles lapping up the dirty rainwater. She even raised her hind leg to urinate, presumably to mark territory. For all intensive purposes, the girl thought she was a dog. Upon discovery and having undergone psychological examination, the girl was found to not suffer from any underlying mental illness that could explain her behavior. She was simply socialized into acting like a dog.
Thus we will hold true that in essence we are simply products of our socialization.
From this I suggest that we begin to consider every individual from the standpoint of how they have been socialized. In this manner, I propose that the socialization and the subsequent development of every individual should be a top priority of a developed society. Not the socialization of individuals to act in accordance to what they are told but in accordance with the critical thought of a free mind. Given choice A or choice B, the critical thinker freely chooses between these two, the noncritical thinker, the unfree mind chooses A, for arguments sake as opposed to B, because of outside influences and not because of free thought and thus not from free will. Sadly this individual believes that he is making a decision based on their free will, without considering how they may have been socialized to desire, to want, to decide, in essence to THINK.