The following will be a general essay that I think applies
to the lifecycle of societies in general, especially America. This essay is
almost Spenglerian in that it sees a society as an organism of sorts which has
a predetermined path. Where I differ from Spengler is a topic for another time.
What must
be understood before this essay really begins is that it requires a degree of
self-knowledge and willingness to commit atrocities for any new society or
organism to be created, as in order for this new organism to exist it requires
splitting off from some previously existing organism and then attacking that
same organism or some other organism, something that doesn’t happen by accident
or without direction. As such, when a society is created there is a degree of
pseudo-conscious direction which lacks the innocence which will be partially
described after the initial stage.
The seven stages of a lifecycle of a society are as
follows:
1. Faux Goodness
2. Goodness
3. Corruption
4. Faux Authoritarianism
5. Authoritarianism
6. Rot
7. Reset
The first stage of a society is Faux
Goodness. After conquering some form of territory and establishing some control
over resources, the people who have done so need to create some mythos that
justifies this in order to maintain this state of things, because they need to
have supporters and proles of some sort who are willing to sacrifice themselves
and work for the good of the organism. This can usually be achieved by
demonizing some outsider group, usually the group that was dominated or split
off from. This occurs in the form of war propaganda or highlighting wrongs
done, and is usually a mix of truth with lies in order to really galvanize the smaller
and less powerful (individually) organisms involved in the new, larger
organism.
If the conscious leaders of the new
organism fail to instill some mythos of Faux Goodness, then the organism will quickly
fail because there is a lack of compliance or aspiration. In addition to
stoking fear and hatred of some Other, there are positive goals and dreams that
are pushed as what the new organism is working towards. These positive goals
and dreams serve to increase the contrast between the potential Good Outcome (the
survival of the new organism) and the potential Bad Outcome (the death of the new
organism), which further galvanizes the smaller and less powerful organisms
involved in the new, larger organism. If all goes well, the new organism
survives the initial splitting off and establishes some form of stability, with
the conscious leaders or brain of the organism partially lying to the followers
or organisms inside the organism. This lying is not an issue, yet, but as it is
the seeds for a taboo it will eventually grow into an issue.
This works for some amount of
generations (that amount depends on the talent and self-awareness of the brain
of the organism), but it is imperfect. There is a necessary transfer of
information that runs counter to the public narrative, and transfer of
information is entropic in nature in that some little bits of it always get
distorted or lost in some manner. The leader may not give the exactly proper
advice or do it well, or the person/people the leader instructs may
misunderstand or have some different perspective that is distorted which makes
them not take the advice seriously. Also, the public stances and motivations
(which run counter to the real stances and motivations) are giving instructions
and guides to future leaders which might stick with them despite their private
tutorage.
In addition to this, the positive
but partially untrue mythos surrounding the new organism has grown and cemented
over time. People who were not around for the creation of the organism and not
aware of lies or half-truths are replacing the aging population within the
organism. As they are getting a manipulated and partially untrue version of
their history, their understanding of cause and effect are becoming
increasingly warped. They view themselves and their existence in ways that are
increasingly illogical and untrue because they don’t know any better and have
no reason to suspect otherwise. Because these people do not know what it takes
to create a new society or organism, they do not know what it takes to preserve
it or improve it, and they begin to value things which sound nice but have no
real basis in reality. This results in a sort of innocent goodness that is naïve
and is also increasingly easy to manipulate by those who know the truth but are
willing to engage in the taboo (the real reasons for the creation of the
organism and the methods that were effective in creating it.)
At a certain point, there is a sort of strong
bifurcation that occurs in a tangible sense, where the proles and some in the
government of the organism/society believe the mythos completely, and those in
the leadership of the organism who know the truth of what has happened (to
varying degrees) as well as how to take advantage of those who do not, and
engage in deception and duplicitousness with those who also know the truth (to
varying degrees) to control and direct those who believe in the Goodness of the
organism.
This is generally when the organism
has its strongest period of growth and increasing strength. Because the general
populace within it now believes a lie, they are not burdened by the truth and
have very good intentions. They are willing to work hard and follow directives
like sheep. They are not disillusioned, they believe their leaders like
children believe their parents and thus are a very effective and cohesive unit
which can be directed and fervently accomplish directives. These accomplishments
lead to general wealth and happiness, as everybody seems to be winning, and
this further reinforces the idea that the organism is fundamentally Good and
right, which amplifies all the willingness to do whatever the leaders say.
These people who give into
temptation will start out alone. They will work in secret and tilt things in
their favor, setting up ways to extract wealth from the general populace. Some
other members of leadership will notice this and confront them. In this
confrontation, sometimes the malicious exploiters will be dealt with and
neutralized, but sometimes the malicious exploiters will manage to convince
their confronters to join them in the exploitation through either discussion or
threats of retaliation. As such, eventually these exploitative smaller
organisms inside the larger organism will begin to group up and further increase
their leverage and control over the class of people who do not entirely believe
in the founding mythos of the society/organism. This is where corruption really
starts in earnest, as these people and groups of people do not have naïve ideals
and they are not slowed down by a desire to help or preserve those who do have naïve
ideals.
At this point, taxes are introduced
or raised, governmental organizations which do not serve any genuine purpose
are formed and expanded, and implicit maliciousness begins to grow like a form
of intelligent cancer. Where the general populace can be exploited, where money
can be redirected without notice, it is. This is very minimal at first, because
this cancer is in uncharted territory and careful to evade detection or
punishment, and it is successful. The corruption occurring is minimal enough
that it can be shrugged off or escapes notice, the general populace is still growing
in strength and receiving enough rewards for their efforts that they do not
really notice that an increasingly large portion of their returns are being redirected
away from them.
Growth and prosperity is still occurring,
but the benefits from this are gradually being stolen from the naïve people
doing the work by these malicious cells. Proportionally, it is almost
impossible for anybody to notice unless they essentially take the derivative of
the situation to find underlying trends, which is a topic for another essay but
is generally beyond the understanding of the people who are being taken
advantage of, and they are naïve so they don’t suspect what is happening.
As secrets in groups never last
forever, eventually the corruption and maliciousness of portions of the ruling
class leaches out to those who are not corrupt or malicious but are in the
ruling class. These people who are not corrupt or malicious are at a
disadvantage because they are not receiving disproportionate resources like the
corrupt and malicious are receiving disproportionate resources. This means that
these people have essentially two outcomes: either they join the malicious and
corrupt or they struggle against them and are eventually defeated. This defeat
can come in the form of death or failing out of the ruling class.
Eventually, the entire ruling class
which does not have the naivety of the general population in the organism is
corrupted and malicious. Still, there is common sense and a desire to keep
their corruption and maliciousness minimal enough that it does not impede the
function of the organism as a whole. This does not last, as those who are
corrupted partially are gradually dominated by those who are even more corrupted,
which causes a feedback loop over time which eventually overrides the common
sense and restraint of the partially corrupt.
This is when the implicit abuse of
the ruling class begins to transition to an increasingly explicit form. Taxes
rise further, social programs and governmental organizations grow to an
increasingly conspicuous level. The more observant portions of general populace
begin to feel that they are being taken advantage of. Still, the abuse is not
unbearable so it is largely unaddressed or opposed. Anybody of the general
populace who does take a strong stance is still operating from a naïve framework,
so they can easily be neutralized or disempowered by those who are not naïve.
Now, the organism is still largely
functioning, but it has become increasingly antagonistic to the proles within
it. Some members within the ruling class who are corrupt will see the trend and
it will worry them, and they will bring this up to those around them but will
be ignored or punished. This further speeds up the abuses of the public because
the people with power are increasingly sociopathic and uncaring about the long
term consequences of their power.
Eventually, the explicit nature of
corruption and abuse becomes jarring enough to members of the naïve population
that some are essentially shocked out of their naïve perspective and ideals and
begin to uncover the truth of their reality. This is a stumbling and awkward
stage for these people, as they are essentially putting themselves through a
process where layers of innocence are stripped away. Little insurrections or
public displays may occur which will be put down or destroyed in various
degrees of severity. With every defeat, these now non-naïve proles begin to
understand what is happening further, and reactions and strategies to “right
wrongs” (which is still naïve) are developed and implemented. These attempts
are also neutralized in various forms by the ruling class, but with each
iteration, the general knowledge of the abused public grows and more of the
proles lose their innocence or belief in ideals. This is an exponential process
which becomes increasingly hard to control or dominate by the ruling class.
At a certain point the corruption
and maliciousness of the ruling class is apparent to a large enough portion of
the population that it cannot be stomped out by the means which previously
worked. The general public still partially believes in the founding mythos, but
there are doubts and informal/critiques of various accuracy that are beginning
to be developed and distributed among the general public. This is when the next
stage of the organism begins.
The fourth stage of the
organism/society’s lifecycle is Faux Authoritarianism. The ruling class is
dealing with increasing unrest, and they know they cannot ignore it, so they
begin to increase social rules and guidelines designed to impede and further
disempower/impede the general public. Because the general public does not yet understand
the degree to which they are being abused and there is still some goodwill that
remains, lots of people will go along with these social rules and guidelines.
These things will be introduced and pushed in a manner which appeals to
whatever naïve impulses still exist in the general public.
Some of the more aware members of
the general public, those who have come very close to the truth of what is
happening, will see the strategy being employed and try to warn about this, but
because the new social rules and guidelines are disguised in positive sounding
ideals, these people will then be ignored or even abused by the more naïve general
public which vastly outnumber them. This will be seen by the ruling class, and
they will approve of it because they see how the general public has become less
effective in checking their power and begun directing their focus and excess energy
against each other. This behavior will be encouraged and pushed through even
more social rules and guidelines which are also disguised through positive
sounding ideals that appeal to the naïve and innocent.
Much like the corruption began very
small, much like the initial lies which the leaders came up with to create and unite
the organism in the first place, the social rules and guidelines will be
implicit and minimal in nature. The punishments and social cost to breaking
these rules and guidelines will be implicit enough to trick the majority of the
population, and this will essentially result in an effective neutralization of the
minority of the population which is not tricked.
This neutralization is not the same
as destruction, it is simply the temporary impediment, and eventually those in
the general public who see what is going on will begin to group up and form their
own small organisms in order to better resist what they see happening. This
results in even more social rules and guidelines by the ruling class, but this
is also an iterative feedback loop which results in increasingly strong strains
of discontented people who form increasingly strong groups of resistance.
Eventually, it becomes clear to the ruling class that this implicit form of
repressing the rebellious members of the general public is not sufficient, and
the next stage of the organism begins.
The fifth stage of an
organism/society is Authoritarianism. The exploitative ruling class begins to
utilize their police to crack down on dissidents. This is also wrapped up in
various forms of ideals that sound good to the non-activated general public,
but it is increasingly clear to everybody that this is dishonest. Still, a
large portion of the naïve general population believes in the founding mythos,
but that portion is gradually shrinking and more and more people are having
concerns. This explicit authoritarianism now in play does have an upside though,
as it very easily neutralizes dissidents. The downside to this is that much
like the Faux Authoritarianism stage, this Authoritarian stage is not 100%
effective in neutralizing dissidents and creates its own iterative feedback
loop where force needs to be escalated as the surviving dissident strains in
the general population gain knowledge and become increasingly robust and creative
in their operations and communications.
The fact of the matter is that the
ruling class has far more resources than the dissident strains within the
organism/society. They have more tools at their disposal and more ability to
dish out punishments. They also have the power of the state and the state’s
propaganda outlets, which pump out increasingly dishonest and manipulative
narratives which serve to confuse and distract the general public to increasing
levels. This means that barring an invasion by some competing external
organism, they will eventually reach the point of explicit authoritarianism and
control that the dissident strains are rendered completely unable to express
themselves. Dissident strains will still not be destroyed completely, and they
will grow increasingly drastic in their demonstrations or operations against
the ruling class, but they will be neutralized and punished to the point where
they are incapable of ever having any real influence or changing the system
that is now dominating them cruelly and explicitly.
At this point, the society has been
transformed completely into authoritarianism, and the ruling class has
developed methods to ensure they will not be overthrown. This means that the
more aware of the dissident strains will become nihilistic and exploitative in
their own ways. They will also begin to exploit the naïve and confused and all
the things described in the aforementioned paragraphs will begin to occur
within these dissident strains in a fractal like manner, directed at the
general populace rather than the ruling class. This will be essentially a
smaller fractal version of the larger organism, and the ruling class will
actually encourage it because they are not on the receiving end of it, and it
is something which further divides and expends the excess energy of those being
ruled.
Some of these dissident strains
will end up working with the ruling class and become appendages of the ruling
class. These specific dissident strains will dominate the other dissident
strains and absorb or destroy them, and even more fractal appendages of the
ruling class controlled dissident strains will be created. Eventually, there
will be no meaningful or sincere dissident strains remaining. The
authoritarianism will be secure and the system will be stabilized in the short
term. This brings on the next stage of the organism.
The second to last stage of a
society/organism is Rot. This could also be thought of as decay, but really
since it is a resulting stage it is just a more visible form of decay that was
already happening ever since the creation of the organism. Rot is when the seeds
of decay really sprout and begin to show their fruits.
Now that any rebellion has been instrumentalized
and become subsumed and the mechanisms of control have been established and are
not able to be overcome, the selection pressures that ensured that the ruling
class had the skills and knowledge to maintain control are no longer in play. This
means that increasingly stupid and incompetent people will gain power eventually.
These people are not the people who did what they had to do to dominate the
general population, and over time the reasoning for rules and for the current
order are gradually forgotten. The lies that were used to create the organism
in the first place have grown and now are the dominant force in the organism,
and this force is ultimately destructive.
The rules for controlling the
populace begin to be misunderstood. The people ruling are increasingly decadent
and deluded. They start believing new lies that are similar to the lies the
commoners were told, but this time about themselves. These people have all the
wealth and do not know how to use it properly. The psychic is upstream from the
physical: they begin to become physically deformed because they are increasingly
mentally deformed.
There is a lag for the mechanisms
of control to degrade, it does not happen immediately. This is a top down decay
that is occurring, the ruling class is increasingly incompetent and gradually
replaces generals, CEOs, governors, mayors, and all other sorts of managers
with increasingly corrupt friends and loyalists. The general populace is
getting increasingly demented and unable to provide any semblance of a satisfactory
life, and the mechanisms of control have made the theft of capital from them by
the rulers even more extreme. Now there are foolish rulers who have decaying
control over their subjects and their subjects are increasing in suffering and
reliance on the state. This is when the final stage of this organism begins.
Reset is the end of the organism. I
say reset and not death, because death implies a finality that does not exist. When
an organism enters a reset, it is really transformed into a bunch of little
organisms as revolts and revolutions balkanize and split apart the organism
(for the process to start all over again), or the organism is then “eaten” by a
competing external organism in some stage of the society/organism lifecycle.
In the stage of Reset, the organism
does not have the proper mechanisms to survive. All the incentives and trends
are destructive in nature. Any growth has stopped or slowed to a glacial crawl.
Barely anything functions, and it is obvious to everybody that nothing is
functioning, but all the lies and corruption that resulted from those lies is
now the dominant force. Everybody with any real influence or control has
forgotten how to make things function properly. Those who can see what is going
on do not desire to save this organism, they are suffering and they hate what
they see and wish to destroy it. The only sane people in the organism wish to
see it brought to its ultimate conclusion. The organism is about to die.
This is the lifecycle of a typical
society. There are many failure modes along the six stages prior to the final
stage where the organism might die, just as there are many failure modes for a
human to die of “unnatural causes” before they die of old age.
There are also ways in which this
lifecycle may be changed in the future, for example if some society decides to
have some machine learning AI set its policies as well as enforce them, as that
would remove or shift the human trends towards greed as well as the entropy
involved with generational handing down of power and transfer of information. Of
course, this sort of rule would have its own failure modes, but that is a topic
for another essay.
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