The Survival of Our Society, Universal Truths

The Survival of Our Society.

(It is understood that available resources are the most important factor in survival.)

In past posts I talked about Human Development and the concept of “home”.

This post will discuss the concept of leadership and how it has to be tempered against the basic drives in people in order for a society to survive.

It starts with what I'll call universal  truths. I believe certain universal truths are encoded into our genes, a part of survival not only for oneself, but for the survival of the species. 

1) Leaders 

All cultures have leaders:  family leaders, neighborhood leaders, civic leaders, county, state, and national leaders.    Go into the deepest part of the Amazon forest where there are tribes that have never seen other societies and you’ll find a leader who is either the strongest one, the wisest one, a religious one, or a health care professional(witchdoctor).  Some societies may have leadership councils where leadership is shared based on the skill set of the council member.

Pack animals like lions and wolves also have leaders. (They also protect their borders: another survival need for a group if resources are available .)

Since “Leaders” are the supposed to be the  most adept at solving problems, or are assigned to do so,  For the sake of efficiency (discussed later), it is human nature to have their leaders solve their problems.

2) Social Interaction:

Gathering into groups is a great way to ensure survival, so the top of the pecking order for all societies are those with strong leaders. Groups require borders to keep intruders from entering to steal sustaining resources.

3) Conservation of Energy and Accumulation of Resources 

(Greed, Laziness, Survival Insurance.)

You can see this behavior in dogs, cats, and other predators.  They have a hunting time and a resting time. They bury their bones and they rest a lot!  This behavior  uses  as little energy possible to assure that the energy they got from the last hunt is available when the next hunt Is needed.

We humans call this laziness or the shortest path to the solution of a problem (i.e. efficiency).

4) Need for Freedom:  Another universal trait for all beings is that they want to do what they want to do, when they want to do it.  No one likes restrictions. Although the sex drive is extremely strong, it is the leaders that have the most power in this arena.

Using this survival/efficiency/restriction/leadership model we can see why almost all societies fail in time.  The reason for societal failure is that the priority of each trait is not in optimum balance.   

Any change in the optimum balance of the required traits needed for survival will assure the death of the society.

A)   If efficiency (laziness) takes over,  more control is given to the leader.

B)   If procreation takes over,  poverty (i.e. smaller share of resources), disease and overpopulation will take over. (It is interesting that populations stabilize if its affluence is high enough.)

C)   If lack of restrictions take over (a lawless society), group harmony and cooperation is destroyed.

D)  If leadership takes over,  the society  suffers in accordance with the leader’s greed and fears.

There have been a lot of experiments  done by extinct societies in balancing of these traits.

Some used are: 

Supreme human leaders

     For example: Dictators, Kings, Presidents, and Popes, supreme leaders)

Religions, Idols and/or gods

    Experts in communicating with the idols or gods tell you what the idol or god says you're supposed to do, are the controllers of the society.  (Much like Popes.)

Constitutions

   A document  dictates the balances of power for each universal trait. Documents are great leaders because they cannot take bribes. Some documents are good, some not so good.

Democracies

  In a democracy, each individual gets one vote and the most votes win.  The problem with this approach is that in order for a group to "win" over others to their advantage all the group has to do is make more babies.  This unnatural increase in population will strain resources.  The society will fail.

Republics

  A republic uses regions that have boundaries that count as "one" vote. In our two party system, the boundaries are divided into two major groups: Democrat or Republican.  A powerless third group called "Independents" could never win an election. However, Independents can vote for either one of the two major parties.  This group can be very powerful in determining the outcome of a two party election.

   Bounded areas that count as one vote are great. They allow residents of a sparsely populated regions like Nevada have a say in what goes on in Washington.

Awareness is a MUST 

Even the best attempt to balance these universal traits, a constitutional republic,  can be flawed if we, as members of this group, allow the powers of the universal traits to waiver from their optimum balance. (Our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is one of the best attempts to keep these universal traits in balance.)

Note: Unbalancing is most often instigated by a leader, or by special interest groups which aim to take unfair advantages over others.

Each member of a society must temper their laziness (efficiency) with an awareness and understanding of the balance of traits in force in their society.  If wariness is neglected, the society will fail.

OH!!!  We can't leave out Boredom as a factor.

Boredom can be a double-edged sword. If  boredom is not handled with care, the society will fail.

Mankind was not meant to sit still. They get edgy if there’s nothing new happening. This is a good trait in that it can drive  people to expend energy to improve their own and their societie's survival situation.  It can be bad if it drives destructive behavior.  Here is where a legal system is needed to insure that boredom does not disturb the optimum the balance of the universal traits.

 

Conclusion:

Our nation is out of balance today.  This imbalance is manifested by corruption, riots, immorality, obesity, entitlements, racism, brain washing, lack of common sense, the killing of each other (abortion) and over control by a government with an agenda of getting more power. (We got too lazy.)

My opinion is that we allowed members of each party collude with each other too easily.  A kind of "I scratch your back if you scratch my back." situation. (Lobbyists are paid to do this.)   We cannot allow this to happen.  The mindset of our legislators has to change. Legislators should focus only on maintaining the balance of the universal forces to assure survival of the society. That's it!!!

One of the major flaws in our Constitution and Bill of Rights is that they are written in a "live" language.  Meanings of words can change in a live language. (It used to be that the word "cracker" meant something you eat. Now it is a racial slur).  I believe the Constitution and Bill of Rights should be written in a "dead" language where the meanings of words cannot change.

We are all brainwashed by the influences around us.  Some forms of brainwashing makes it OK to kill others.  For example:  radical Islam, abortions. 

P.S. Now, we can tie in the concepts provided in earlier posts. “Human Development” (aka. I believe voting age should be over 25 years old),  and our  concept of “home” (aka. Security).