Value versus Socialization.

[crow]

When you consider it, the primary preoccupation of society is the separation, by individuals, of anything of value, from other individuals. This seems to be the basis of anything social.
Maybe I am missing something, but maybe everybody else is, too.
I mean, what is socialization, anyway?

It occurred to me, today, that civilization and socialization are very close to being opposites.
The first is interested in building something out of nothing, via cooperation of the many parts.
While the second is the wild party that follows the work, and uses up the fruits of the previously applied labour.

The more I see of people, the more I understand how socializing is really only an ongoing skirmish to separate others from their stuff. Money, goods, sex, opportunity, indeed anything having any perceived value. And for those who have nothing of any value, the socializing gets pretty thin.

Many people have built, and continue to build, whole value-systems around this idea. While inventing all kinds of explanations as to why they do it. The explanations are typically high-sounding and calculated to portray virtue of one sort, or another. Compassion, love, peace, caring. Sharing, equality, rights...

But when you stand back and examine what is going on, without assuming anything, beforehand, all you really see is what the individual can get out of any given situation, at the expense of another individual or individuals.

Camouflage. Make sure others get something too, so that what the individual gets doesn't look suspicious. Spread it out, so nobody will notice the selfish motivation. But where, oh where, does all the value come from? How much of it is there, to endlessly take from and hand out?

[Cargést]

In my experience, "socialisation" is the activity whereby ideas and experiences are shared between humans.  If I hold a party, or meet people at the pub, we invariably begin talking about the things which can only be talked around (i.e. reality), allowing for a number of people to have doors that were once closed opened.  Inspiring interest in worlds beyond that of the individual ego is the greatest fruit of human interaction, though there are innumerable pitfalls around this (e.g. hipster "knowledge battles", social power games, and, of course, objectification of others [esp. other sex, though also "enemies", "idiots", etc.]).

[crow]

Indeed. It depends upon what socialization means to different people.
Your example is the way that I see it, too, or did see it.
I discover, though, that this view is not very common, and what the term usually means, is people competing for ego-dominance while contributing nothing, while using up resources and otherwise useful time, to end up with a hangover, more lost time, fewer friends and a raging thirst for more of the same.
There seems to be this thing that accompanies socialization, whereby it is believed that it will somehow go better the next time.