The relevant concept is one called "ma'at"; this is commonly translated 'truth' or 'justice', which are stabs in the right direction. (The word is also the name of a goddess who embodies same.) Ma'at is also right action, and . . . one Egyptologist translated it as "the force which brings people together into communities".
So there's this thing.
One of the religious obligations is to support ma'at against entropy, pretty much; that upholding ma'at, this social force, needs to be an active thing, something that gets grit in its gears that can be cleaned out. This is an obligation of both gods and humans, and it is enacted at multiple levels -- religious ritual and proper behaviour in the rest of life, as a force for personal health, societal/social health, healthy interaction with the universe.
It is general belief that everyone has the capacity to do this, that the heart is also the seat of ma'at. One can get out of touch with this guiding force and wind up acting badly and to the detriment of self, community, cosmos; too much grit in the gears. This can be fixed; there is a true self that is a fitting seat of ma'at in there somewhere, because nothing is designed broken.
So the "most people are positive influences maintaining society against entropy" translates, to me, as "most people are adequately aligned with ma'at, which makes sense, because that's how people are put together to start with".
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The relevant concept is one called "ma'at"; this is commonly translated 'truth' or 'justice', which are stabs in the right direction. (The word is also the name of a goddess who embodies same.) Ma'at is also right action, and . . . one Egyptologist translated it as "the force which brings people together into communities".
So there's this thing.
One of the religious obligations is to support ma'at against entropy, pretty much; that upholding ma'at, this social force, needs to be an active thing, something that gets grit in its gears that can be cleaned out. This is an obligation of both gods and humans, and it is enacted at multiple levels -- religious ritual and proper behaviour in the rest of life, as a force for personal health, societal/social health, healthy interaction with the universe.
It is general belief that everyone has the capacity to do this, that the heart is also the seat of ma'at. One can get out of touch with this guiding force and wind up acting badly and to the detriment of self, community, cosmos; too much grit in the gears. This can be fixed; there is a true self that is a fitting seat of ma'at in there somewhere, because nothing is designed broken.
So the "most people are positive influences maintaining society against entropy" translates, to me, as "most people are adequately aligned with ma'at, which makes sense, because that's how people are put together to start with".