Do You Want To Be A Baboon, Or A Lion? On Hierarchy, Alphas, and The Sociology Of Delusion
This video/talk (linked below) expresses the social psychology underlying the deep, global crisis of legitimacy which the ruling elite are now facing. Kudos for that. However, it also reveals an utter ignorance of anthropology (see Eisler, Gimbutas, and Bookchin), and it expresses support for an obsolete social model based on domination and submission, as well as being rooted in the delusions of social Darwinism and “nobless oblige”.
Baboons and chimps compete for dominance and alpha status. Lions do not. How do you want to live? As a lion, or a baboon?
Actually, in terms of evolutionary biology, we human beings, homo sapiens sapiens, are more closely related to gibbons, than to any of the other primates – including baboons. And our close kin, the gibbons, live in a society that is non-hierarchical, based in equality, freedom, sharing, cooperation, mutual aid, and peace. If we are going to be reductionist about it, and assume that human nature has direct analogues in nature, to which we are inescapably confined, then we should at least be minimally scientific. That means, we are more closely related to the gibbons than to the baboons, which means we are innately inclined naturally to live in freedom, equality and mutual aid, and not in societies that are founded upon domination, submission, and hierarchies of class or power.
If we want to understand hierarchy, freedom, history, evolution, human nature or human society, political philosophy, political-economy, sociology, anthropology or history, or if we wish to be scientific or empirical, then we must reject dualism, reductionism and mechanistic thinking, and reject social biology and social Darwinism, both of which are unscientific assertions of a crude ideology, and not sound science. And if we are to be scientific, rational or empirical, or if we are to understand any of these things, and not merely be blinkered ideologues, then we need to read Kropotkin’s, Mutual Aid – a work which in reality is much more significant and important than Darwin’s Origin of Species; and we furthermore need to read Rianne Eisler’s, The Chalice & The Blade, along with Murray Bookchin’s The Ecology of Freedom. These three texts should be considered the minimum requirements to be considered educated, in any sense, and particularly in the fields listed above.
There are many theories, and many views, ideologies and philosophies. Most of what passes for informed or educated opinion, is mere ideology and indoctrination, and it is as unscientific as it is delusional. If we want a better understanding of the world, then I would suggest we take the theories, views, or philosophies of social ecology, expressed by Murray Bookchin, ecofeminism, expressed by Vandana Shiva and others, Kropotkin’s landmark work on mutual aid, and Ken Wilber’s flawed, but highly useful integral theory – and synthesize their best elements, along with the values and inspiration of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and republican constitutional democracy. Or you can read my own writing, which synthesizes all of these important and liberatory, emancipating threads, and more.
(Note that Ken Wilber is a brilliant polymath, but he is not God, and he is not omniscient, nor infallible. His four quadrant theory is brilliant, and extremely useful. But his views on the quadrant pertaining to human society – sociology, anthropology, social psychology, history, political-economy and political philosophy – are based on a gross misunderstanding, and are therefore, frankly delusional. The problem in that quadrant, or his views of it, hinges upon his conflation and confusion of hierarchies of complexity in nature, which are inescapable, with social hierarchies of power and domination, which are human creations, and relatively recent human creations, a mere few thousand years old, and tragically disastrous ones, at that. He has no understanding of the broad sweep of human history, nor of the radical implications of Kropotkin’s work in evolutionary biology. Therefore, everything he says about hierarchy, and political philosophy, is based in ignorance and delusion. I have great respect for him as a person and as a thinker – but he is simply wrong when it comes to social theory in general, and hierarchy in particular.)
*
False messiahs, tyrants, dominators, predators, exploiters, oppressors, fascists and demagogues pose as leaders, but what they really do, is to usurp the power of others, by convincing others to yield up their power to them – usually with false promises of protection and safety.
Domination is not leadership. True leaders empower others. True leaders are not afraid of equality, or diversity, or freedom, but celebrate, embrace and promote all three. This is the difference between a true leader, and a mere authority figure. We have many of the latter, few of the former.
Authorities rule the world – not leaders. But that too, shall pass.
Writings of J. Todd Ring
Do You Want To Be A Baboon, Or A Lion? On Hierarchy, Alphas, and The Sociology Of Delusion
This video/talk (linked below) expresses the social psychology underlying the deep, global crisis of legitimacy which the ruling elite are now facing. Kudos for that. However, it also reveals an utter ignorance of anthropology (see Eisler, Gimbutas, and Bookchin), and it expresses support for an obsolete social model based on domination and submission, as well as being rooted in the delusions of social Darwinism and “nobless oblige”.
Baboons and chimps compete for dominance and alpha status. Lions do not. How do you want to live? As a lion, or a baboon?
Actually, in terms of evolutionary biology, we human beings, homo sapiens sapiens, are more closely related to gibbons, than to any of the other primates – including baboons. And our close kin, the gibbons, live in a society that is non-hierarchical, based in equality, freedom, sharing, cooperation, mutual aid, and peace. If we are going to be reductionist about it, and assume that human nature has direct analogues in nature, to which we are inescapably confined, then we should at least be minimally scientific. That means, we are more closely related to the gibbons than to the baboons, which means we are innately inclined naturally to live in freedom, equality and mutual aid, and not in societies that are founded upon domination, submission, and hierarchies of class or power.
If we want to understand hierarchy, freedom, history, evolution, human nature or human society, political philosophy, political-economy, sociology, anthropology or history, or if we wish to be scientific or empirical, then we must reject dualism, reductionism and mechanistic thinking, and reject social biology and social Darwinism, both of which are unscientific assertions of a crude ideology, and not sound science. And if we are to be scientific, rational or empirical, or if we are to understand any of these things, and not merely be blinkered ideologues, then we need to read Kropotkin’s, Mutual Aid – a work which in reality is much more significant and important than Darwin’s Origin of Species; and we furthermore need to read Rianne Eisler’s, The Chalice & The Blade, along with Murray Bookchin’s The Ecology of Freedom. These three texts should be considered the minimum requirements to be considered educated, in any sense, and particularly in the fields listed above.
There are many theories, and many views, ideologies and philosophies. Most of what passes for informed or educated opinion, is mere ideology and indoctrination, and it is as unscientific as it is delusional. If we want a better understanding of the world, then I would suggest we take the theories, views, or philosophies of social ecology, expressed by Murray Bookchin, ecofeminism, expressed by Vandana Shiva and others, Kropotkin’s landmark work on mutual aid, and Ken Wilber’s flawed, but highly useful integral theory – and synthesize their best elements, along with the values and inspiration of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and republican constitutional democracy. Or you can read my own writing, which synthesizes all of these important and liberatory, emancipating threads, and more.
(Note that Ken Wilber is a brilliant polymath, but he is not God, and he is not omniscient, nor infallible. His four quadrant theory is brilliant, and extremely useful. But his views on the quadrant pertaining to human society – sociology, anthropology, social psychology, history, political-economy and political philosophy – are based on a gross misunderstanding, and are therefore, frankly delusional. The problem in that quadrant, or his views of it, hinges upon his conflation and confusion of hierarchies of complexity in nature, which are inescapable, with social hierarchies of power and domination, which are human creations, and relatively recent human creations, a mere few thousand years old, and tragically disastrous ones, at that. He has no understanding of the broad sweep of human history, nor of the radical implications of Kropotkin’s work in evolutionary biology. Therefore, everything he says about hierarchy, and political philosophy, is based in ignorance and delusion. I have great respect for him as a person and as a thinker – but he is simply wrong when it comes to social theory in general, and hierarchy in particular.)
*
False messiahs, tyrants, dominators, predators, exploiters, oppressors, fascists and demagogues pose as leaders, but what they really do, is to usurp the power of others, by convincing others to yield up their power to them – usually with false promises of protection and safety.
Domination is not leadership. True leaders empower others. True leaders are not afraid of equality, or diversity, or freedom, but celebrate, embrace and promote all three. This is the difference between a true leader, and a mere authority figure. We have many of the latter, few of the former.
Authorities rule the world – not leaders. But that too, shall pass.
The people are beginning to awake.
J. Todd Ring,
September 21, 2021
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