Social evolution

I tend to think of the biological evolution of our species of humans and the evolution of our social structures as a symbiotic relationship. The biological evolutionary trait of speech lead to the social evolution of cooperative groups. The success of that cooperation encouraged further development of speech and then other means of communication. Which, in turn, influenced social evolution along the lines of widening that communications net until it encircled the globe. That this is true seems painfully obvious, which is why the right-wing / conservative worship of the "rugged individual" and "individual achievement" always strikes me as off-key. No one is really a "rugged individual", particularly in today's interconnected and crowded world. And no one achieves anything independently of the society around them. As individuals we succeed and fail within rather tight parameters that are completely outside of the our control.

One aspect of evolution is the tendency of something completely new bubbling up out of the established. Biological forms fit into every niche that can support life, even ones we found unimaginable until we stumbled across them. (Black smokers were just such a discovery. Geologists and biologists discovered amazing colonies of complex life at crushing depths in frigid, dark water - a place where life wasn't expected.) Life evolves new capabilities to exploit changing environments. Eyes say, and then different eyes that see different wave lengths of light. Bats and whales echo-locate, a hippopotamus sweats its own sunscreen, and deep sea creatures make their own light.

The diversity of social evolution isn't nearly so stunning or obvious. All human societies seem to exhibit similar structures where the powerful live a lifestyle enhanced by exploiting the labor of the less powerful. The degree of comfort between top and bottom varies from structure to structure and society to society. In a poor society living at the sustenance level the gap between top and bottom is small. But, even though I am just a casual observer and not a sociologist, I'll bet a good cup of coffee even the poorest societies still have a "top" and a "bottom". There have been attempts to construct social structures that are not skewed so,communism and socialism being the most obvious attempts to protect the providers from being abused by the managers. So far both have failed spectacularly when it comes to building a just and fair society.

Democracy coupled to capitalism is often offered up as the system that has managed to reduce the disparity between top and bottom most effectively, with capitalism regularly touted as "THE" economic system, particularly those who have benefited from it the most. In America we have gone so far as to declare our capitalism as the very economic system approved by god. And though the right wing declares itself as the true followers and protectors of capitalism, I haven't heard any national or state level politician even so much as hint that capitalism isn't the answer to our problems but the reason for our problems. All of American politics is joined at the hip to capitalism.

Unfortunately capitalism has proved to be as susceptible to corruption by the powerful as was communism under Stalin or nationalism under Hitler. America's capitalist system has been utterly corrupted by the capitalists which, when one thinks about it, isn't really a surprise. It might have worked out differently had a democratic government been able to keep the capitalists reigned in, balancing the motivation of greed with the need for a stable society to be just and fair. Sadly, the government simple sold itself to, (or was bought by) the capitalists. The failure of American capitalism, and the society built on it, is as inevitable as that of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.

Insofar as American capitalism is simply one arm of western capitalism, most of western Europe as well as North America is equally at risk. A once prosperous middle class impoverished for the benefit of the very few will eventually react with anger and violence. The resulting fires will leave little of the original structures in place. (The failure of Islamic societies, even more top heavy than western societies, is far advanced. I can't think of a single Islamic state that doesn't fit the definition of "failed". Totalitarian, sexist, violent, impoverished, hungry and corrupted to a level that would embarrass even some American politicians, they are all tottering on the edge of collapse.)

Which is where social evolution crops up once again. Human society has never been in this place before. On the one hand corrupted, undone by endless wars and religious violence, burning through limited resources seemingly unable to stop, and unbalanced by the discovery that we are neither center to the universe's efforts or important to it in any way. On the other hand we have discovered that there is no being in the universe that will save us from ourselves, that we are responsible for our future. In addition we have developed communications systems that will soon overwhelm the ability of anyone to censure what anyone else can know or learn. (Just sitting writing this essay I have taken to the Internet to review the history of black smokers, read some of what other people think about social evolution, taken an admittedly quick tour of the state of Islamic societies, and come up with a couple of addresses.) That type of power sharing has never existed before.

Technologies for point producing power and using that power efficiently are blossoming all around us. Smart people are tackling the world's need for local access to clean water and making good progress. The unsustainable consumerism that is the backbone of western, and particularly American culture, is loosing its allure. A growing number of people are moving to reclaim their lives by rejecting the influence of Madison Ave, Wall Street, K street, East Capitol Street, Pennsylvania Ave, and the Apostolic Palace Vatican City. If one looks carefully one can find people who are learning to live outside of or in defiance of the power structures being used against them.

Admittedly these are small rays of hope easily overwhelmed by the storms that seem to continuously roll over the world. But evolution often acts that way. Not so long ago on this little world a small environmental niche was filled by a species of tribal ape that learned to communicate. A blink later in the time frame of the cosmos and its descendants have overwhelmed the planet, walked on the moon, and sent machines out of the solar system. A like threshold in social evolution certainly seems possible. Somewhere a small society forms that actually figures out how to govern itself well, provide for it members in a sustainable way that includes treating everyone fairly and justly, who also learn to protect themselves from the abuse of power wielded by others both inside and outside of the society. This small group would be overwhelmingly successful. Even without any imperialistic impulses of its own, surrounding groups would copy the successful formula. Given the speed of worldwide communications it isn't hard to image this new society sweeping around the world in just two or three generations.

Exactly what this new society would look like is impossible to say from this side of the threshold. But taking a bit of hope from the idea that the threshold might already be upon us doesn't feel like a bad idea. All the chaos loose in the world today could be seen as not much more than the final frenzy of a whole raft of bad ideas about to be swept away. Religion and tribal politics, war and endless violence, greed and the lust to have more than the person sitting next to you when you already have everything you need, the hypocrisy of demanding "freedom" is the right to tell other people how they should live, all ideas that simply are not working. The religious, the professional politician, the war lords, the corporate masters and tin pot dictators large and small; even some of them must realize that it isn't working, that the party is almost over.

The evolution of the universe teams with new and unexpected things bursting onto the scene.

Maybe we just need to hold on for a little longer.