“Do not take roads traveled by the public.” Pythagoras
“History repeats itself, the first as tragedy, then as farce.” Karl Marx
The first thing I want to say, days before I even start this piece is that I need to write more than I need to be read. It’s a creative integrity thing. I apologize if this makes me a pain in the ass or not worth reading, because that is absolutely not my intention. If that was the case, I’d keep a fucken diary, buried under my pillow. I will let this paragraph sit for a bunch of days, while I percolate a tricky story to share………………………………………………….
OK, you ready? Here goes nothing! First thing, this is not a happy story or a sad one. Does what I have to say, resonate on social media? Absolutely not! While I have two quotes, in an effort to capture a split story, it is really one. They are kind of parallel, but their consequences definitely join in the end.
Let’s start with the number 3. When you have two people, you have a straight line, A leads to B and visa versa. You can’t get into the “ he said, she said” syndrome. Now, the moment you triangulate the dynamic, you’ve bought yourself a problem. Cross communication is inevitable, giving birth to endless misunderstandings.
When you start piling on the numbers, whether it goes by the name of family, community, tribe, politics, religion, mob, nation, etc., it really doesn’t matter, because you’re (we’re) screwed. The larger the numbers, the more dangerous the possibilities, no, the inevitability of conflict.
This is how the first leg of the giant clusterfuck begins to grow. As stupendous a tribute to evolution as we are, we are hopeless and predictably flawed. If we could be truly honest with ourselves and look unblinkingly in the mirror, under the bright light of our own personal histories, we would see so many missteps we have made. I am not even talking about the big shit, just little things. How about the number of times you weren’t truly honest with another, whether about your feelings or thoughts, or compromised by a pay check? It doesn’t matter.
We all carry anger from our past, whether the fragility of a hurt child’s memories or the missed opportunities with a relative or co-worker. Sometimes, these feelings go underground, buried in our insides, eating away at us, often exploding in a completely unrelated circumstance. We could all too easily write it off to just being in a bad mood.
Why am I telling you this crap? In my wonderfully, half-assed manner, I am trying to make a point. Now, stay with me here. Imagine you enter an empty room. One by one, people file in, holding tightly their fair share of shit. The room keeps getting bigger and bigger, until there are no longer any walls. Just for a second, think about all the possibilities for mixed signals, whether by innuendo or gesture or whatever.
As the numbers grow, the permutations and combinations of feelings give birth to movements, harnessing the lack of self-awareness, which has been our calling card for millennia. Looking in that mirror can be incredibly unflattering. For many of us, it is easier to turn our backs and embrace the blindness that draws so many of us toward each other. The noise grows so loud, we can’t even hear the answer to the question, WHY?
Anthropologists spend their lives studying the behavior of elephants, zebras, you name it. They’re really adept at predicting how hippos will behave in a drought or dogs to thunder. It doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention to how we behave in all sorts of groups, no matter the size or the purpose. Being remarkably unacademic, I am sure they’re all sorts of esoteric documents addressing our sociological predictability. I also think it is a very unpopular subject and nobody really wants to hear it anyway.
Who we are today is who we have always been. I think guys like the Buddha and Jesus and Mohammed are intellectually and emotionally sexy.They appeal to whom we think we are not, but whom we want to be, the exasperation of aspiration. I am sorry to say this effort is futile. When those anthropologists look at species, they often deal in millions and millions of years. This is a paint by numbers concept with a shitload of numbers, but not the case with us!
I recently read that the Blackfoot, indigenous people have been traced back at least 18,000 years on the mainland. You know, just because we have brains, doesn’t mean we are some evolutionary miracle. I think Darwin made a mistake, when he created a ladder with us at the top. The Triops tadpole shrimp should sit atop the ladder, as the longest living species on earth, having been around for about 250 million years. How do you like that? We have so much to learn.
I am talking about a mathematical predictability in terms of our behavior going askew, plus our vulnerability, as the numbers grow. We seem to be blind to the consequences, like a bear trap coated in honey. Manipulation is a by product of our inability to see ourselves.
While we are in a Darwinian state of mind, let’s take a look at the history of our species’ behavior over time. It goes hand in hand with my behavioral theory of Three or More. The keys are predictability and consistency, having focused on the former already. Our social evolution has been frozen since our cave days, which is why the primal drawing. Our behavior has been consistent over the millennia. We simply don’t get along with each other, never have, never will. What we consider progress is a very deceiving term, not touching upon our core behavior, which is unchanged.
Hoping for a positive outcome when it comes to addressing the climate crisis or controlling the looming, massive abuse of AI, not to mention eliminating global poverty or human rights abuses, are noble dreams. Our history is our future.
The answer goes back to the numbers. The only number of any consequence is #1. We have a choice as to how we behave and treat others and that is our super power for today and tomorrow. Our genius as a species is our adaptability. Our hearts hold the key as to how it will all turn out, for us, our children and our children’s children.