Part 2: Stand Up

Selection and fitness

Environment: that which selects - itself transforms (fully dynamic, there is no static equilibrium).

Fitness: that which is selected for, is roughly the probability that a given organism will leave offspring (will propagate its genes through time).

The “fit”: the matching of organismal attributes to environmental demand. That demand (Nature)  is not eternal and unchanging, and evolution is not a never-ending series of linear improvements. So fitness is not something that can be ever more closely approximated across time. Creatures are not matching themselves to the template of nature. They are in a dance with nature, albeit one that is deadly (it is also a mistake to conceptualize nature romantically).

Therefore, that which is “natural” is any order that has lasted a long time. The longer it has existed, the more time it has had to be selected, and to shape life.

Dominance Hierarchies

→ Animals that cohabit territories have learned tricks to establish dominance, while risking the least amount of possible damage. For example, the lobster has complex defensive and aggressive behaviors built right into its nervous system (which manifest even for those raised in isolation). Lobsters have several stages of progressively more violent “dominance fights.” After a bad defeat, its brain basically dissolves and grows a new, subordinate’s brain. Its original brain isn’t sophisticated enough to manage the transformation from king to bottom dog.

→ Lobsters are 350 million years old. So dominance hierarchies have been an essentially permanent feature of the environment to which all complex life has adapted. The part of our brain that tracks position in the dominance hierarchy is exceptionally ancient and fundamental.

→ The dominance hierarchy is not a human creation; not in the most profound sense. It is not social or cultural, not capitalism or communism. It is a near-eternal aspect of the environment, and its unchanging existence can create effects that we blame on more ephemeral manifestations.

Biological Status Mechanisms

For people (and lobsters), serotonin and octopamine regulate how confident we feel.

→ Low serotonin means more response to stress, which is costly to keep up. But it is necessary because anything may happen, at any time, at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy (emergencies are common, you must be ready to survive). It means less happiness, more pain and anxiety, more illness, and shorter lifespan. Your immune system shuts down, expending energy and resources required for future health now, during the crises of the present.

→ High serotonin means the opposite. The future is likely to be good for you, so it’s worthwhile to think in the long term and plan for a better tomorrow. You can afford to delay gratification.

→ An ancient part of our brain specialized for assessing dominance watches how other people treat you, and then renders a determination of your value and status. Sometimes, the counter doesn’t work right - like when there are erratic sleeping and eating habits, or uncertainty. (clinical solution: wake up at the same time everyday, eat breakfast)

→ Our anxiety systems are very practical - they assume that anything you run away from is dangerous. If these get caught in negative feedback loops, things can spiral downwards very quickly (e.g. agoraphobia). So, procrastinating from tasks confirms that they are dangerous.

Pareto distributions

→ The Matthew Principle (Matthew 25:29): “to those who have everything, more will be given; from those who have nothing, everything will be taken.” Called Pareto after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian polymath, who noticed wealth power distributions in different societies (seems true of every society, regardless of governmental form). Manifest across civilizations, that top 1% have as much as the bottom 50%.

→ The optimistic side: those who start to have will probably get more. And you can start some of those upward moving loops in your own private, subjective space.

Our capacity for anger is not bad

→ When the naive discover the capacity for anger within themselves, they are shocked (ex: new soldiers/PTSD). It is easier to assume that the terrible perpetrators of history are totally unlike us. But there is within us the capacity for oppression and bullying (also for assertion and success).

→ There is very little difference between the capacity for mayhem and destruction, integrated, and strength of character. This is one of the most difficult lessons of life.

→ Naive, harmless people work under the assumption that no one really wants to hurt anyone, everyone is basically good, and the threat (and use) of force is wrong. (clinical practice: let people see their resentment at unfairness as anger, then as an indication that something needs to be done, then see action as part of what holds tyranny at bay - at individual and social level.)

→ At that awakening - the recognition of the seeds of evil and monstrosity within ourselves - people see themselves as dangerous, and their fear decreases. They develop more self-respect, and perhaps, they begin to resist oppression.

Stand up

→ Stand up, with shoulders back - the physical and spiritual are linked. Standing up means voluntarily accepting the burden of Being, the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open.

It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood. It means unwillingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality. It means acting to please God.

→ “Then you may be able to accept the terrible burden of the World, and find joy.”