HIERARCHY

     Hierarchy is an increasingly visible word in current dialogue about the economy, politics and psychology.  Perhaps our ever more informed society is coming around to accepting that hierarchy is a universal organizing principle, beit galaxies or gerrymandering.  The insight seems to be emerging that we cannot idealize it away, but that we must deal with it empirically.  Out here in the heartland, we seem to get the "rock/paper/scissors" attributes of the phenomenal world, but societally, we still have a  hard time grasping the anti-hierarchical implications of our most cherished meme:  "all men are created equal" 

     The irony, of course, is that, at both ends of the socio-economic hierarchy, the tribes and sub-tribes rely on this fable to manage their position in the hierarchy.  It doesn't matter how many times the Harris/Peterson types clarify the "equality of opportunity" vs. "equality of outcome" divergence....no one is listening.  The "power-players" use the "equality meme"  to maintain the prevailing hierarchy status quo by overt publicity that there is no hierarchy, thereby minimizing the likelihood that an organized resistance will arise. The "provider-players" use the meme to, with disingenuous naivete, taunt the "power-players' into greater faux altruism transfers by playing on the "power-players" ambitions to keep the ruse working.

     This cross-check tension pattern has obviously produced advancement across the entire hierarchy.  Jack Ma is happy that Alibaba recently sold $1B in 86 seconds, and I'm happy that Amazon delivered my toaster-oven for about an hours wage in only 9 hours, but....history suggests that while some knowingly non-rational systems are adaptive (i.e. the cold war) the far more robust systems are those based on  patterns closely synched with immutable forces, (i.e. SpaceX rocket landing). 

    So how do we adapt toward a "Transparent Hierarchy" culture.  The NFL uses "Salary Caps", the far-left likes UBI, democracies use votes, the retched favor caravans....... it's muddy, but compelling. 

•              ”The most improper job of any man … is bossing other men. Not one in a million
•               is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

                                                                                                           — JRR Tolkien