About Us

Societism Institute is a 501(c)3 charitable organization whose mission is to promote the well being of the group without neglecting the significance of the individual. Societism is not Individualism nor Socialism but more closely compared to conservative principles of limited government but with a social conscience.

The Institute accomplishes this mission by providing workshops to help citizens address their concerns, choose their battles wisely, find solutions and reclaim their voice. It also promotes this effort as a think tank by advancing these same common sense solutions.

Our country is in the midst of a very serious and dangerous crossroad – one that usually ends in the demise of a democracy. Individual freedoms are not free - and the responsibility to limit government and other self-interest groups from excess liberties has long been neglected.

By engaging citizens to stand up for what is right restores balance to “we the people”. The result being a prolonged harmonic society with maximum opportunity, liberty and happiness for it’s citizens.

Whether you are concerned about the impact of a growing government, needless hurdles affecting your life or other issues that need correction, please read some of our topics and share your thoughts in our forums.

Become a member today and support our cause. Together we will make the positive changes our society so desperately needs.
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Historical Roots

Plato wrote, "... the worst part of the punishment is that he who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself."

The first known definition of the term Societism was in 1896 in a speech before the students of Western Reserve University and the Oberlin Theological Seminary entitled, "Individualism and Societism".  Speaker Z. Swift Holbrook defined Societism as “…not as opposed to individualism, but as the highest development of political ethics, true individualism. Perverted notions of the independence, the autonomy, and the liberty of the individual would find fruitage, not in selfism, but in selfishness, while the true and orderly development of the individual would not rob him of his individuality, but reveal individualism as a necessary training for that higher school "Societism".

Swift explained the need for the term Societism because a diversity of opinions existed as to the real meaning of the word "socialism," and even of the word "individualism," that these students should either free them from the mass of debris that has gathered about them, or leave them to their fate, and find new words to express the two simple concepts, individual man and social man. How much individual freedom is compatible with the public welfare, that the war between socialism and individualism wages.

Leading political thinkers including Edmund Burke, John Locke, Montesquieu and others mentioned the need to collectively work together to control the limits of government.  James Madison, author of much of the United States Bill of Rights, while clarifying the limitations of government wrote:

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."


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