Arthur M. Jackson
CHAPTER ONE - B Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006
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(Continued) Alpha Male/Female Most likely, physical strength and agility were important components of selection of the alpha male in proto-humans. But negotiating skills, ability to establish alliances, talents to maintain order in the clan were equally important [10]. The development of folk religions with God as the "true" alpha male allowed the verbally gifted a natural place from which to achieve great power, even over the warriors. These things correlate with language ability and it is my guess that at some point language ability became more important than other characteristics in both alpha males and alpha females. Since the alpha male got the pick of females, which included the alpha female (and she played a key role in his selection), this process would have greatly speeded up the co-evolution of language and brain. When the modern language abilities all came together Homo sapiens moved away from communication restricted to the social realm and moved toward Modern Humans communicating with words, sentences, paragraphs, and speeches within the total realm of our current awareness.
Individuals even in modern societies without any inkling of what they are doing, just naturally utilize the alpha male/female behaviors. Of course customs within a group can either support or diminish these patterns of behavior. Many tribal societies have essentially excluded authoritarian rule by the alpha male through group cooperation opposing such behavior [10]. On the other end of the scale are fundamentalists of every persuasion. They are controlled by dominance and submission. They almost always require women to follow a traditional role; i.e., female submission. Such practices lead readily to spousal abuse and make it doubly difficult for their males to overcome this dominance/submission propensity.
Within small social groups the alpha male/female propensity is restrained by social bonds and group cohesion. In modern loose knit urban social structures there is often little effective restraint. In a modern industrial society, males who haven't learned how to restrain their alpha male genes to avoid authoritarian behavior frequently live in a constant state of tension and create instability around them. Possibly these are the Type A males.
In a large society where everyone does not know everyone else and therefore "does not know their place" with each other, this issue has traditionally been dealt with through the custom of developing manners and instilling politeness. The practice of treating each other -- particularly strangers -- with courtesy prevents initiating a dominance/ submission confrontation. It exists for good reasons. Otherwise, every time two males meet for the first time it would be necessary to deal with dominance/submission issues before other activities could transpire. Our language propensity allowed us to develop intricate social structures that require complex behavior that can be totally disrupted when the alpha male/alpha female patterns come strongly into play. Alpha patterns can lead to such inappropriate, disruptive behavior with employers; customers; passengers on trains; dealing with one's dentist, physician, electrician; etc. They affect myriads of contacts with authority figures -- police, bosses, monitors, clerks, bureaucrats, military rank, priests, teachers, etc.
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As a result a smoothly functioning society requires socially sensitive behavior. Manners and politeness have this function. They provide a clear social expectation of what each person should do in a given social situation. In this way a pattern is established that makes for smooth social relations. Those who violate the norms are seen by others as ill mannered and social pariahs. They tend to be shunned by others, and not invited to participate. They are excluded from the group. These patterns have evolved to help societies avoid socially destructive confrontations.
However, for activities that emerged recently (like driving cars) where appropriate behavior has not yet been fully integrated and completely accepted as social rules, persons often display an "attitude," act rudely and thoughtlessly in situations that from the outside would appear to be similar to ones in which they are polite, say "you go first," etc. When two alpha males cross lanes on a crowded freeway and one cuts the other off, etc. they initiate a need for confrontation and dominance. They stop and confront. If one has a gun the bigger and stronger one may be left dead alongside the highway. In a world filled with strangers in which there are knives, guns, and paid goons, struggles for dominance can prove to be fatal.
Handling the alpha male drive differently has been one aspect of humanity's efforts toward creating itself out of its evolutionary roots. Democratic procedures have been a primary tool in this effort. Ideas of the enlightened community merely express more clearly and completely how this goal would be achieved. In an enlightened community the alpha male drive for power would be tempered by recognition that self interest requires channeling this drive toward goals that are socially useful. More than that the goal of an enlightened community must be to empower every person to take an active, constructive role in the community that is neither destructively dominant, nor passively subservient. It is a basic assumption of a science of ethics that dominance/subservience drives, like all propensities, can be channeled so that they do not prevent the individual from being part of a utopia, working to build and maintain an enlightened community and becoming an enlightened person.
Adolescent Males: Why So Strange? In proto-human clans the males were the hunters and the defenders of the group. The females the gatherers, cooks, and maintainers of the living space. Probably females were the inventors of agriculture, weaving, and medicine. But, more importantly, the females cared for the kids until they reached puberty. I believe that up until the evolution of the language ability males at puberty left the clan. And the adolescent females stayed in the tribe in which they were raised. Leaving the birth clan of course had a selective evolutionary advantage because it reduced incest and thereby worked to keep the gene pool diverse. Incest is also reduced by the human characteristic of being attracted to new (exotic) partners rather than members of the group the individual was raised with. (This promoted spreading of genes far and wide by those traveling adventurers who usually had great genes.) Young males came into the clan from other tribes and established their place in the pecking order as they matured. After the evolution of the language ability adolescent males started to remain with their birth family. I assume this was related to the tighter bonds that developed as a result of language plus the larger groups this also promoted. However, I would guess that adolescent males with an intense alpha male gene component would not have been able to adjust to living under their father, or other males. And, from time to time would break off from their birth group and move to new territory to set up their own group. I suspect this process had an important role in spreading humanity and genes over the face of the globe, especially those genes involved in language.
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But was it the Homo male who left the group? In chimpanzees, baboons, and gorillas it is the female who leaves the birth group, and that may well have been the pattern for Homo. I base my assumption that it was the males who left the tribe on the fact that over the past several thousands of years at least within urban settings, adolescent males have been a mystery to their cultures. They go into some strange state that makes the elders scratch their heads and become convinced the culture is falling apart. I believe this state includes withdrawal from the family, rejection of its values, and other behaviors that in earlier times prepared them to leave their clan and go to another. Females (at least until recently in the U.S.) had no similar patterns. Rather, they tended to display an early, almost compulsive -- but non-sexual, at least in terms of a male interpretation of sexuality -- interest in the opposite sex. Soon afterwards, they tend to lose their self-esteem, and become very pliable. They fit into a pattern to start rearing a family, and not make waves. They are ready to make the necessary adjustments to raise a family and submit to their mate.
I take as further evidence that it was the male who left the clan, the fact that it is a wide spread practice in tribes and primitive cultures to go out and get their wives by abduction, war, or courting. Sometimes the bride is purchased or obtained through negotiation from neighboring tribes or groups. I see this as a sign that the adolescent female is not eager to leave her clan and needs the pull from outside or the push from inside.
Dealing With Propensities Are the above ideas accurate? None of them are based solely on firm research findings, since I'm not aware of such data. However, sociobiology has already said much on the bigger elements of this issue. Click here [11] for one source for ideas that point the way necessary to develop such data. Surely, final answers will turn out to differ greatly on some points. However, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the broad outlines of these ideas are correct. On the specifics there must be questioning.
A science of ethics must help individuals become more aware of their self-defeating inclinations that stand in the way of achieving what is in their long term best interests. This knowledge needs to be available so they can more effectively deal with these tendencies. Understanding that these propensities exist is not taken as justification for succumbing to them, just the opposite. Knowing about them helps us to become aware of such behavior and do what it takes to interrupt or redirect it. Because such patterns develop in puberty, or even before and are found in all adult human beings to varying degrees thereafter, they are something we all have to learn how to deal with, if we are to become enlightened persons. And, we must do this in new ways never widely applied in any society or group before.
Propensities, including those discussed above, have contributed to the confusion of Modern Human's efforts to find a new stability -- to replace the hunter-gatherer pattern (which is gene-driven) with one that is compatible with our modern language ability. Nevertheless, in spite of the frequent failures of imagination and understanding throughout the course of human history, we have been gathering experience on all the things that don't work. Also we have been accumulating knowledge to allow us to take the steps that will lead to a breakthrough. The essence of this answer as previously expressed is that a new state of equilibrium in social living is our goal. In this new stasis there must be congruency between the community and the individual as there was in the previous hunter-gatherer stage. This can best be described as the creation of an enlightened community made up of enlightened persons such that any conflict between the needs of the community and the needs of the individual can be resolved without triggering the us/them dicotomy.
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We can even make out many of the specifics about what an enlightened person and an enlightened community would be like and these ideas are presented in Chapter Two [14] along with ideas about what needs to be done to achieve both of these. Since Western societies have built all their institutions on the idea that there is an inherent conflict between an individual and their society, and non-Western societies tend to follow the practice of rule by the most powerful male, introducing the necessary changes will not be easy. However, the challenge of a science of ethics is to uncover the knowledge necessary to build the structures that will allow these changes to be made so this congruency can be achieved.
Work, Employment, Jobs Understanding, at a fundamental level the relationship between "meaning of human life" and symbolic communication has ramifications for every aspect of the problems we currently face and how to find the best solutions to those problems. Religion, sex, and race have already been dealt with. Work, employment, and jobs remain as a very important area to examine. The tools we call the industrial/ technological/ information revolution are essential to the successful resolution of the "meaning of human life" issue. Many changes in customs, life styles, and memes were necessary before the industrial revolution was ignited. However, all of these changes were supportive of our "tribal" propensities rather than our "wisdom" potential. Because "tribal" propensities limit a person's development, and yet still form the basis for modern employment this means that the whole industrial component of today's world needs be restructured -- as does government, education, and religion -- if individuals are to be supported to develop their "wisdom" potential.
Before Modern Humans came on the scene with their advanced language ability, each proto-human's mental abilities were fully utilized living the hunter-gatherer life style. Tribal members worked cooperatively to hunt and gather and to create an environment in which all could share in the available sustenance; for example, I take it that eating together was a defining characteristic of modern humanity. Without it we would have become a very different species. Although some members may have gotten larger portions and the best of the skins as discussed above -- re: alpha males -- sharing and cooperation was the milieu in which each person lived. With the evolution of Modern Humans and a vastly enhanced language skill, humanity was no longer limited to the hunter-gatherer life style. Other options became possible, in fact necessary.
It seems clear to me that work, jobs, and employment must be altered so that they help all persons to become enlightened persons, and whatever changes are necessary must be worked on until this is achieved. A critical challenge is to find how to apply in today's societies an appropriate method of sharing that provides the success of the model used by hunter-gatherer societies.
To help each person achieve the foregoing would be a primary goal of a science of ethics. The aim would be to develop enlightened communities so that all members would be able to participate in the work, the play, and the rewards of the Community. At the same time the goal would be to help all persons develop as fully functioning selves. A core part of this functioning would include every individual's involvement in the expansion of knowledge, and the production of wealth and services in their community. To do this successfully the tremendous potential of the industrial/technological/ information revolution must be harnessed in such a way as to achieve congruency between individuals and society. (See Volume II, Chapter 34, "Work and a Science of Ethics," [15] for some specific ideas on this point.)
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According to Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under U.S. President Bill Clinton, work and working in the U.S. has been transformed in a basic way in the past several decades as a result of technology and globalization (THE FUTURE OF SUCCESS). (See Volume II, Chapter [34-B] [16]for key ideas from this book.) The impact of these changes is to make work the focus of individual lives in the name of “faster, better, cheaper.”
Reich claims these changes are as fundamental and will be as sweeping as those that occurred when mass production was introduced in the mid-1800s. And these changes supplant the mass production paradigm. To the degree that Reich has properly characterized what is happening this is of seminal importance to Science of Ethics. It appears that the gains are overshadowed by the losses, but some limits may need to be imposed on this pattern to prevent serious loss of quality of life by workers.
As previously discussed Science of Ethics recognizes that work is essential in a community and some elements of the new paradigm appear to hold positive benefits. The elements that promote individual creativity and talent are among these. But the aspects of this change that push out family, community, recreation, and anything not directly increasing one’s work efficiency appear counterproductive. The challenge is to learn how to utilize modern knowledge and technology to enhance the quality of life rather than turn each person into a tool for producing goods and services at the cheapest cost possibly even if that means starvation wages, exploitation of the vulnerable, and focus on just getting by.
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EVOLUTION OF MEMES AND SOCIAL CHANGE With the brain's new ability to use, produce, and alter memes Modern Humans were able to master the new behaviors required by animal husbandry and agriculture, so they were invented. These life styles allowed settled living and provided numerous challenges that gave individuals different ways to explore and to satisfy the possibilities of their newly wired brains. Various communities by developing and manipulating memes were able to master care, breeding and production of animals, as well as planting, growing, and harvesting to produce the food necessary to sustain life. Under normal circumstances surpluses were obtained which freed some persons to explore their world in ways not possible to a hunter-gatherer society. This pattern of life also allowed them to increase their populations and wholly different ways of living became possible. Although this period opened new doors for many individuals it wasn't even close to providing the environment necessary for every member to develop in a fully satisfying way their new capacities as Modern Humans. As a result humanity continued into a period of diverse change and recurrent instability. And, in the process more doors for individual achievement were opened.
Almost all these changes were caused by or at least shaped by the new memes that became available as societies met and exchanged memes. This cross pollination of ideas, experiences, and discoveries came about since the various cultures took different paths as they attempted to fulfill their citizen's new needs for personal achievement and fulfillment. Generally speaking this pattern led to more rapid evolution of cultures. And, this period was characterized by a more rapid widening of the breach between the society and an increasing number of individuals. From time-to-time this evolution of memes led to ideas that conflicted with the religious ideas currently binding the society together. If this conflict was not able to be successfully resolved, it normally promoted disintegration of the society -- sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. And this demonstrates the importance of studying and recording as much information on every clan, tribe, group, and society as possible. Every society like every person is a source of unique information and experiences. Each provides a resource of priceless value in learning what to do and what to avoid doing -- based on the effects of the beliefs and practices of that person or society.
However, historically one of the most priceless contributions made by any society was the invention of writing (using pictographs, hieroglyphs, ideograms, etc.) and then the alphabet. But as would be expected this process not only brought great rewards, but also -- since there are no unmixed blessings -- included harmful elements that are only now being understood. For an interesting description of this process see, THE ALPHABET VERSUS THE GODDESS [17], by Leonard Shlain.
But regardless of what the range of effects were when an alphabet was adopted, explosive cultural change was one of them as writing vastly expanded the number of memes available in a society. This increase of available memes opened doors for individual achievement and fulfillment. It provided a way for persons to develop their individual personhood. Written language made it possible -- under the proper circumstances -- for individuals to extract themselves from group-think and suppression of self produced by the impact of group customs and rules.
Because of these things and thousands of others, individuals moved further in the direction of becoming their own person. In comparison to the past the relationship between the individual and their society became increasingly more flexible. Societies grew larger and social bonds became looser and frequently less satisfying for the individual and for society. As societies moved ever further in this direction, more and more they lost cultural unity. The congruency of life style and social needs achieved by our forbearers prior to the evolution of modern language became more and more eroded and lost. And, evolving societies continued into ever more uncharted territory.
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There was a brief period of hope during the Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century when the idea was developed that human well being could be achieved through use of knowledge. And in the mid-1800s many persons shared the vision of utopia and a life of culture and plenty on this earth.
But there was much to overcome. One effort that was promoted in the 1800s in England by writers such as John Stuart Mill (1806-73) led European societies to adopt the idea that there exists an inherent conflict between the individual and their society. This may have been done as a strategy to break out of the stifling social customs of the day when there certainly was a conflict between what individuals wanted and what the society permitted. Because of the foregoing such thinking did advance science, technology, and commerce. Also, it promoted individual freedom. It provided a barrier to protect individuals against some of the worst attacks by the repressive religions of the day. But this progress was achieved at a heavy expense. It enshrined the "tribal" propensities. It increased alienation between individuals and society. It mis-focused serious thinkers so they failed to look empirically for the roots of conflict. As a result the advance of technology and industry was never able to be properly utilized for the good of all.
One issue that made progress difficult resulted because Western social institutions were based on the Judeo-Christian-Islamic idea that God provides guidance on how to live one's life and that the human species lacks importance independent of God. As a result it was widely accepted that the individual and their life only had value based on their affiliation with a church, nation, or family. (This is the path of the bee, the ant, the termite, and of course the path of our "tribal" genetic propensities.)
As a result by the late 1800s even those persons who believed in the ideas of the Enlightenment began to feel a deep pessimism about human capabilities which were widely accepted as being inherently limited. Therefore, many formerly liberated individuals began to return to the ideas of folk religions and to doubt that human beings have the potential to develop a livable world, let alone a utopia. Economic depression and World Wars -- especially WW II and the temporary loss of one of the most civilized nations in the world; i.e., Germany to despotic evil-- supported this sense of hopelessness.
During the Cold War that followed World War II, destruction of civilization by nuclear weapons seemed eminent. This did nothing to encourage humanity's faith in the potential of their mental powers and the value of knowledge and reason in spite of the almost miraculous growth of knowledge and economic well being during this period.
But beyond the explanations mentioned above it seems we need deeper reasons to account for such gross failure of vision and hope in spite of the tremendous potential of Modern Humans and their achievements in the evolutionary blink of an eye of some 30,000 - 60,000 years. I believe that part of the explanation is that all societies have lacked clarity about what it means to be a human being and what the universe is like. For persons taught that the goal of life is to please God and to spend eternity with Her [18], ideas proclaiming the value of our species in general and the individual in particular fell on deaf ears. Therefore, such persons spend their time in ways believed to be important to God, not in ways aimed toward the well being of the species. On the other hand persons who believe that the goal of life is to achieve personal happiness, find that every achievement only points out the deficiencies in their lives. This tends to be true because they are focusing on effects. Therefore, they tend to look for short term, self-serving activities, rather than investing their life in something inherently more satisfying.
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An additional cause of this failure of vision relates to the us/them and dominance/submission propensities. Historically, most leaders have pursued power as a goal in and of itself. This has been not only in religion, politics, science, education, literature, and art, but especially in business. These leaders have seen the rest of society outside their group as something to exploit rather than as something to share the fruits of their efforts and abilities with. Also, they have tended to live in an environment of self-gratification, and with the vision of scarcity. Because they sought power -- which is always limited -- they have lived in a mental state of scarcity no matter how much power or wealth they achieved. Everything has been seen as being in short supply. In order for them to have "enough" others have to "not-have-enough." Exploiting others for one's own gain seemed like a law of nature; i.e., survival of the fittest. The foregoing patterns have endured up to this time in all parts of the world. In Western societies it exists in every domain, but is especially blatant in the business community. The foregoing, I think, helps to explain why the wonderful potential of the industrial/ technological revolution has been grossly misdirected up to this point, and in fact taken as the criteria for measuring progress and defining value. (See VOLUME II, Chapter 3, "The Enlightened Community."[19])
Another aspect of the preceding ideas encourages looking more closely at the relationship between a society and it's alpha males. From the alpha male perspective one could say that modern societies actually exploit these individuals' need for power and channel it into producing wealth for the culture -- cars, oil, computers, software, etc. Therefore, they work relentlessly to ensure that the things needed by an industrial/ technological/ information society exist. But, however this is seen, there is an essential need for change. And, we now have the possibility for dramatic change. With the understanding made possible by our current knowledge we have the possibility of utilizing the fantastic power of the liberated human mind. When people who have had their talents developed, work together cooperatively and synergistically with other liberated human minds current societies can be transformed. (See Chapter Two [ 14].) These ideas should give us the insights to utilize the powerful tool provided by industry and technology in ways to help transform societies into enlightened communities.
In an enlightened community there would be ways for everyone to contribute to the wealth and knowledge of the society and share in its prosperity and sphere of well-being. These ways must be as satisfying for current humanity as the ways used by hunter-gatherer societies were for our early ancestors. A core element of this process would be to ensure that each citizen would be helped to become a true individual -- self empowered, well-educated, creative, an active participant, etc. To achieve the foregoing persons must be brought to their highest level of development. This can only happen when it is realized that a society exists for its citizens, not the other way around. Their wellbeing is the most important thing for a society. And, a by-product of this concern of the society for its citizens is the reciprocal concern of the individual for the continued existence and proper functioning of their community. More than that because they have been nurtured and expanded as persons they have the talents and ability to actualize their concern. In addition this development opens the door for others because there is always a social component to self development. It is this process that must lead to the expansion of life for everyone in every area of fulfillment.
If we can in fact produce enlightened persons and enlightened communities we will finally have reached a stable stage where each individual's life is congruent with the language ability; i.e., the universality permitted by symbolic thinking rather than the "tribal" thinking imposed by our genetic propensities. There will then be harmony between society and the individual. And this is humanity's goal which is now clearly in sight.
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