“Society determines how long and in what manner the individual organism shall live. This determination may be institutionally programmed in the operation of social controls, as in the institution of law. Society can maim and kill. Indeed, it is in its power over life and death that it manifests its ultimate control over the individual.”

1991; p. 202
The Social Construction of Reality, 1966

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Peter L. Berger 45
Austrian-born American sociologist 1929–2017

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