A society is not the aggregate whole of the parts which are individuals. The individual never has existed, save for the hermit. We exist in a web of relational connections to other persons, those of which do indeed have an effect on the whole and is the matrix of a society.

That we exist in relation to one another and not in a vacuum is evidence that any action that one person commits will inevitably have an effect on another person in some way; whether that action is committed in public or private.

And that every action we commit has an effect on us in every conceivable way (emotionally, psychologically, spiritually etc.) and that those effects determine our actions in some way or another, especially our disposition towards another person, should gives us pause.

Many say that the actions of another should be allowed as long as it does not harm them or anyone else or their property. This dictum assumes no objective standard or morality and the existence of the individual.

But as was stated before, we do not exist in a vacuum but in relation to one another. So everything that we do has an effect on another person, notwithstanding the symptoms of those effects being immediately diagnosable or not, or even being "harmful".

But we should inquire on what is meant by "harmful". Is it physical harm? There of course exists other types of harm other that physical, such as psychological, emotional and spiritual, some of whose effects are not immediately recognizable until later on.

And should we not take also into consideration that, as was stated before, every action that we commit has an effect not only on other persons, but on ourselves also, since we all live in relation to ourselves as well?

This way of thought express a sort of cold selfishness that appears prepossessing to the normal eye, but is full of all confusion and ugliness on the inside. Should I not care about my neighbor and his state of being? If he does a thing that is not at all good for him...

...Such as this thing or that thing, and in the privacy of his own home, should I not tell him that that action produce no benefits even in the event of immediate pleasure, and present him with an alternative that does so?

We are told to have compassion for our fellow man in one instance , but then are scorned and are told to mind our business because it is not harming anyone nor us, in the next.