Y’all, I’ve made a big discovery, and a lot of you are going to hate me for it. It’s something I’ve been pondering for years and the more I look at it the more obvious it is. I’ve discovered what’s wrong with humanity. I’ve discovered whats holding us back for achieving the Star Trek future. I’ve discovered what fuels the wars and the atrocities and the pedos, all the ugly...
Hierarchy. It’s our reverence for hierarchy. We can’t have nice things until we move past hierarchy.
This feels like a monumental discovery on my part, but it turns out I’m certainly not the first to have thought of this… it’s actually pretty well know. There is even a whole series of SciFi books written about this!
Now, before you get your boxers in a twist, hear me out.
There are times and places where decision trees make sense. There are many times and places where there is a particular person who is going to have to make a big decision on behalf of a larger structure. That is true, but what I’m talking about here is a hierarchical mindset. An unfortunate way of viewing the world. And in general larger structures are the result of hierarchical thinking, and don’t do very well. Lean flatter teams do better.
And now let’s look at the bigger picture. Anywhere that you find abuse you find hierarchy. Sexism, racism, nationalism, these are all the result of hierarchical mindsets. One of my all time favorite quotes is about racism and goes “people who are genuinely racist generally are so because they don’t have a better reason to like themselves.” You see that? If they can be above, they can have a reason to like themselves. At least they aren’t a low as ...fill in the blank.
We can see how this very much applies to sexism. Hierarchy is the foundation of patriarchy. It’s the top men → then the pleb men → then the women → and last the children. And the pleb men are satiated by at least being above the women. And this is why the red pill crew leans in so hard to hierarchy.
And it’s just not good for us. It’s not even good for animals. In animal troupes the more the hierarchy the more the stress hormones and the shorter the life span. This structure robs us of individuality, it makes us a slave to the structure. No time for personal discovery and exploration, just get to the top!
The drive to the top and our valuing of being ‘at the top’ is what causes autocracies, from Mexican cartels to the Epstein class. People commit atrocities as they tell themselves this is what is necessary to be above others. ...it’s just the harsh truth of life, ya?
You can’t feel safe around someone with a hierarchical mindset. You know that they are just waiting for their opportunity to ‘dominate’ you. Men do tend to lean into this more, that’s due both to our lingering patriarchal culture and biology. Violently enforced hierarchy’s tend to suit men better as men in general have a physical advantage. In a world ruled by violence, the most violent will rule.
But no this certainly isn’t a gendered issue. Humans, all of us, are half angel and half Chimpanzee. And we get to chose, each of us as individuals, get to chose which side we lean into. Dominance or co-operation?
