Individual vs society

"Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.”
- Oscar Wilde

Ok, my new (very) short story (aka exercise) is about a person born on a planet that is constantly ravaged by such horrible natural disasters that life is remote and scarce. How would it be to live on a world that can only support a few individuals? Can they evolve into communities? Can they form societies? What kind of societies would they be?

I sat in a coffee house last night sipping a cup of raspberry tea and watching group interactions around me. I tried to alienate myself from the norms of our society and see it through a stranger's eyes. Tried to see the patterns that make up our society. It was not easy. Rules of our society are like communication; we are so integrated with them that we don't notice them on a day-to-day basis.

So, issues in this story revolve around communication, interaction, self-sufficiency, evolution, etc. My only fear is that the subject is too large for a short story and that the issues will prove too complex for the exercise.

But I’ve got to try…