The Metaphysical Structure To Society

Have you ever wondered how society works? Fortunately for us, we can understand society as it is a natural maifestation of human nature. Since we are interested in how we can self-actualize, we must learn how society works, thrive within it before transcending it alltogether. Very exciting topic! Lets begin.

Equality And Inequality

For our non-native English speakers, a hierarchy can be understood as a system of organization, where people and functions are arranged at different levels of importance, often with varying access to resources, power, and control. Those at the “top” tend to receive more, while those at lower levels receive less.

Many self-improvement circles dislike and disapprove of hierarchies, seeing them as oppressive and discriminatory. Where this perspective becomes limiting is when it tries to deconstruct natural differences altogether, attempting to force complete equality.

Even in nature, inequality is built into the system, not as injustice or oppression, but as differentiation. It would not make sense to compare the intellectual ability of humans to dolphins, or dolphins’ swimming ability to humans. Each expresses a different kind of intelligence and value. Likewise, people have unique talents, personalities, strengths, and weaknesses shaped by their environment and development.

Because individuals differ and resources are finite, distribution cannot be perfectly equal across society. A useful analogy is the human body: the heart cannot perform the liver’s function, and the resources your body allocates to each organ are proportional to what is needed for the whole system to thrive.

And just as you don’t grieve when a some cell on your skin dies, because you survive; society too allocates resources according to systemic needs. What is given to each individual is proportional to how much their role contributes to the survival and stability of the collective.

This highlights an important point: society is not structured for the survival of every individual, but for the continuity of the collective whole. Equality and inequality, then, are contextual. People tend to care about them only to the degree that they affect their own survival. As long as the majority can continue forward, society feels little obligation to ensure any more equality past that point.

Society Is Meaningless

There is no meaning whatsoever in the way society is structured. The only meaning people project to themselves and to others is to the extent where it helps them survive. Ideas within society is a projection of a collective survival. For example:

1. The idea of money itself has no meaning. It's only meaning is to the extent where it can help us exchange good and services which enhances our survival. The only reason money has meaning and value is because every member within society have collectively agreed that thier survival depends on it. The moment money cannot enhance survival, it loses its meaning.
2. Status has no inherent meaning, as no one or thing is naturally superior over another. Its meaning lies only in how much others stand to benefit from a person’s resources or abilities. Status is thus a collective projection tied to survival, given when someone contributes to the group’s well-being and taken away when they no longer do so.

Because the world has no inherent meaning, whatever meaning exists comes from the frame you project onto it. If you see the world as dangerous, that perception will shape your psychology and color every interaction you have. The real trap is forgetting that meaning itself is self-create. Your ideas about the world define your experience of it. A negative view doesn’t prove the world is negative; it only proves you are perceiving it that way.

Any experience can be a positive one if you choose it to be so.

Engage With Manmade Constructions And Ideals

It is a foolish mistake to then conclude that manmade constructions are fake, and therefore you do not need to participate within them. For example, many have deconstructed the idea of money, and then came to the conclusion that because money is fake and a idea of mankind, then he should not bother with the acquisition of money.

Even thought these ideas are made up, it can dictate how good of a life you live. The best operators are those that acknowledges it as a construct, but choose to play within like a game. Because manmade constructs are a result of collective ego, we just have to identify what are the best interests of those who designed the system and then operate within just like them.

Because the "who" within the hierarchy constantly changes, the survival interests of the collective ego also constantly changes. Therefore the idea of impermanence comes to mind when we are attempting to succeed within society. Things are constantly changing, and the method in which people climb the hierarchy cannot be taught because it is simply not the same!

Some important applications comes to mind:

1. Change cannot happen from the bottom of the hierarchy. You must represent the collective ego at the top and change it within via your participation.
2. It is not a good idea to challenge large hierarchies, natural or otherwise that represent the surival interests of the majority.
3. Since we cannot challenge it, we can only rise to the top of the hierarchy and either defend our position by supporting the status quo or influence it via participation.
4. Statergies and methods used successfully in the past eventually becomes defunct as the collective ego changes due to impermanence. Adaptation to the future is much more important.

Collective Ego

Each one of us has an ego and it is the job of every ego to be able to ensure its survival. The survival methods that overlap with the most people best interests is known as the collective ego. For example, for most of us, we all have collectively determined that stealing is not a good survival stratergy.

The “collective ego” then becomes a set of dominant survival norms enforced socially and legally, which usually reflect the majority perceived best interests. Aligning with it often makes your survival much easier, but opposing it can sometimes advance broader survival outcomes, especially if the collective ego is "wrong".

Understanding this, we have to zoom out to the wider picture. We have our own best interests just like everyone else, and sometimes these interests clash and someone will have to lose. Therefore, it is safe to say that nothing is truly personal, as everyone is trying their best for their own lives.

The mistake here is to hold unto resentments. As we zoom out, we can just see that everyone is trying their best and attempting to make their lives a little bit better each day compared to yesterday. You are doing this, and so are your neighbours. Forgive, let go and move on with your life.

In this sense we can also infer that education is the best investment a person can make in themselves. To survive, you can only execute survival stratergies that you understand. To survive "better" (which means less and less ego), we will discuss that in a moment, ignorance becomes the bottleneck to the "good life."

The Role Of Corruption

Corruption can be reduced to this definition: "To choose survival and ego at the cost of the well-being of others." The previous definition covers the motivations behind corruption, but in practice when we see someone who is corrupt, we call them: "a person of low integrity."

All organizations, communities, partnerships and all the way down to individual members within society will struggle with corruption. If something experiences survival pressures, it will always be constantly tempted by opportunities to corruption. Generally, if a person have greater sense of development (expansion of compassion and reduction of ego), they are more likely to resist corruption.

The degree of corruption we will find acceptable within others (individuals and institutions alike), is directly propotional to the degree of corruption we will be willing to tolerate within ourselves. A person of high integrity naturally resists engaging with those of low integrity, and the people whom you engage with reflects how integreous you are in your own life.

Success and happiness are not the same thing. A leader can reach success through either integrity or corruption, but only one path holds up in the long run. Corruption can create results, but it does so by constantly bending rules and creating loopholes for short-term gain. Over time, those loopholes becomes unsustainable and weaken the foundation, which eventually breaks the entire house of cards.

Any buisness, organization or relationships you create within your own life will be bottlenecked by the amount of integrity you have. By living a more integrous life, you will have the opportunity to lead others into a more integrous life of their own. In doing so, you can create sustainable success over the long term.

The Role Of Discrimination

At any one point, you are discriminating againts a certain set of facts due to beliefs, ideology and whatever else influencing your thoughts. This discrimination is necessary in order to countinue survival. I will show you an example on both ends of the spectrum.

Let's say you are the owner of a shop down the street. Your income to support yourself and your family derives from the profits your shop makes. Therefore, naturally due to the conditions for your survival, you will discriminate againts thieves who steal from your shop.

But let's say you are the thief, you are desperate and may not see tomorrow. Your very survival now depends on your ability to steal. Therefore, naturally due to the conditions for your survival, you will discriminate againts getting caught by the shopowner.

Let's step into the shoes of the shopowner. You do not care if thieves exist or not, so long as they do not exist within your shop. Same goes for the thief, he does not care which shop he can steal from, so long as he does not get caught. Suddenly, due to different survival criterion, these two individuals are now at odds againts one another causing polarization within society.

So here, the note you should take is that anything bad that happens to you within the whole is merely a result of the survival of others. Each perspective, the thief, shopowner, your thoughts on this story and everyone else merely just reflects a tiny reflection of truth.

Because your access to truth at any one point is so limited, discrimination will naturally take place againts any other possibilities. This is why it is important to refrain from any argument, polarizaton and hatred from your fellow man. The only difference between peace and suffering is your access to truth. This happens at an individual level, and at the collective level.

The Nature Of Authority

Have you noticed that a person can believe whatever he wants to believe? No matter how credible a person might be, if a person's bias is strong enough, he can just readily dismiss him. Similarly, if a person's bias is strong enough, then he will agree with him. How come?

As we walk throughout our lives, we slowly relinquish our authority to other institutions and people, but the story I have just illustrated showed that the power of authority is always in your hands. There is no such thing as authority because you are the ultimate authority! You get to decide what is true, and what is false in your own life.

Because you get to decide what is true and false, you bear the consequences from your authority! Yet, so many people dismiss this fact by putting the blame on others. It is our fault when we relinquish our authority to bad actors who do not act in our best interests. You are always in control.

On a collective level, when enough people relinquishes their authority to a 3rd party, then collectively, we start to view that institution or person as credible who serves our best interests, and vice versa. You will subconsciously or consciously make this decision to withold authority or relinquish it.

Here are some applications:

1. Be aware of who you relinquish your authority to and make sure they are acting in your best interests / have integrity.
2. Relinquish authority on a case by case basis when it comes to important decisions. Evaluate the individual more than what they are saying.
3. It is a trap to never relinquish your authority to anyone. It's not possible that you are an expert at everything, make the effort to perform due diligence on things and people that you are about to trust.
4. Be aware of what you trust, often authority is relinquished subconsciously. As with the case of social media, often we just blindly trust whatever facts and figures others are trying to throw at us.

Navigating Authenticity In Society

Relatively speaking, authenticity dictates that everyone is unique and special in their needs. Therefore, it cannot be possible that a person alligns with collective ego 100% of the time. The degree of misalignment you have will dictate how polarizing you are to others.

How you relate with society then becomes very important. You're often not able to achieve self actualization without participating within society and its hierarchies and constructs whether you like it or not. There are only three types of relationships you can have with society:

1. Healthy - You create win win scenarios for yourself and others
2. Selfish - Zero sum, whatever you win is what you extracted from others
3. Destructive - Lose lose scenarios where both survival agendas becomes compromised

Let's rewind back to the example of the shopkeeper and the thief. What can the shopkeeper do to create a win-win scenario for the both of them? For the thief, what can the theif do to create a win-win scenario for the shopekeeper? Get a bit creative and you will quickly be able to now operate at a level of abundance.

Maintaining your integrity is everything when it comes to authenticity. Not only you will be required to create win-win scenarios for other people, you will also have to figure out a way to make them allign with your authenticity. If you are unhappy in any way shape or form right now in your life, that is because you are subcumming to some degree of corruption.

Conclusion

By advancing your survival in a way that creates win win outcomes, not only we better our own lives, but we also advance the survival outcomes for other people. To recap:

1. Life is not fair or unfair (equal or unequal), it is about how you can to better the lives of others to the best of your capabilities.
2. Life also have no meaning, it is how you see the world that creates that meaning.
3. Because life is what we make of it, we want to wholeheartedly engage with life and the things within it.
4. Almost all challenges you face with others in life is a result of conflicting survival agendas.
5. Because you face these challenges, you must not succumb to corruption and maintain the integrity of your authenticity.
6. Irritation and anger are useless. Bitterness only reveals your lack of access to truth.
7. You are the ultimate authority, and because this is so, you have the ultimate responsibility for what happens in your own life.
8. Because this is so tricky, we must find a way to relate with society in a healthy manner by interweaving authenticity with life.

That's it for me. Best of luck. Please check out my other posts and practice everything holistically. Send me an email if you want a specific topic written. You can see "coaching" to see if I have room to onboard new students.

Cheers,
FriendlyWrenChilling.