There are two images revolving around one another in my mind that are about to collide.

The first was born while reading a tweet in which one woman was chastising another woman for a comment she made. The tweet read, “Men didn’t get ahead in this world by…” I found the substance of this disagreement pointless, but the perspective that men knowingly did something, or are doing something, to get ahead in the world immediately set off alarm bells in my head; thoughts came into existence and began spinning and congealing into a little galaxy.

Men haven’t done anything in particular to get ahead in this human world. What we are experiencing is the fact that we humans have evolved, over thousands of years, from a social structure that was dictated solely by physical strength. In that world, needs were met by the use of violence and abusiveness which gave men a natural advantage. Civilization is, and has been, trying to evolve towards a social structure that rejects such use of force, to one dictated completely by logic and reason. This process, however, can never happen as fast as we want it to. There are still people, who are part of our environment (hopefully dwindling with every passing generation), that will use violence and abusiveness to fulfill their needs. Thus, and to a much lesser degree than centuries ago, men still have a natural advantage.

The second galaxy was formed by reading an article about the U.S. – China trade war. In the article it was reported that, once again, China stated that they will never convert their financial system to the western style private reserve banking system. This exposes the contrast of east and west, with China still using a strong centralized government to manage their society and the U.S. racing to privatize and decentralize everything. Over the millennia, human governing systems have been evolving from a strong, physically dominant centralized government, towards a decentralized organization based on reason and communication. Again, an issue of evolution. It is going to take much longer, than we are willing to accept, to reach a point where individuals and corporations can be trusted to naturally put society first without strong government oversight.

The problem that both issues face is that we cannot evolve faster than the environment. We see the goal and want to make the final leap with reckless exuberance, not realizing that moving forward without respect to the realities of our environment causes more problems than solutions. That is, we will not eliminate the use of violence and abusiveness in our society by creating a violent and abusive police force. It only reinforces the established structure. And the same pressure the U.S. is putting on China to change is exactly the environmental pressure that justifies China’s strong centralized government.

False Peak Syndrome is when a hiker or climber, after a long arduous hike, thinks they see the top of the mountain and picks up their pace to get there faster so they can rest. However, when they get to that point they learn that the trail keeps on going up and they are now a bit more tired because they expended too much energy in their haste. It is not rare for a hiker to experience several False Peaks in a single trip to the top of a mountain.

We can see a world where there is no violence and abusiveness, but we cannot just get there.

We can see a world where we do not need a strong centralized government, but we cannot just arrive at that place.

Getting to these places will take work and sacrifice over time…
It is all a process of evolution that is better served by a slow, steady, and reasoned approach.