What is natural order? We hear the expression all the time,
“Such is the natural order of things.”
Natural Order is our way of explaining how things seem just happen because of repeated instance, or distinguishing pattern many things follow…
The natural order as it relates to people (us) is as follows:
ANIMALS > PRIMITIVE PEOPLE > MODERN PEOPLE > SOCIETY > ?
Society is defined as group of people involved with each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Different societies are characterized by patterns of social relations between individuals who share a distinctive culture. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups.
But how does society just happen? How did societies come to exist? Because developing societies is the Natural Order of our sociological behavior. I base this conclusion on the fact that every culture across the world developed into its on society… that’s kind of what made them a culture to begin with. But why? 100,000 thousand years ago we, or what became us, were not that far removed from other animals. Time goes on. We become full fledged Homo sapiens, and populations spread. We evolve following the traits of those that survive the best in each population. We use tools, and hunt with them, and even begin to solve difficult problems. We transition from hunter gatherer, to being largely agrarian. No longer nomadic, we stay in one place long enough to develop communities, which grow into cities. There’s not enough land around town for everyone to be a farmer, so many of the people become merchants and trade goods and services for food and shelter. You know… society. This is society arriving through the natural order of things. As evidenced in many societies, the natural order of things also, for some reason, favored developing the notion of inherited social class. This mentality for the most part governs the world until the enlightenment, and all the common folk essentially say, “To hell with that!” And democracy emerges from a 2,000 year old nap it decided to take back in ancient Rome. Capitalism becomes the major economic system of the world. If your country matters at all, it’s because of the resources it controls along with the goods and services it produces. This is the way things are going for a long while, until… now. I believe we are on the cusp of a new enlightenment. An awakening of better understanding of our world and the universe as a whole… and what’s more, I believe this to be the natural order of things.
What put democracy to sleep for 2,000 years back in Rome? Control over the masses by a select few who, largely through inherited social class and status, ruled the fucking world until the enlightenment. Though the Enlightenment, for all its profound wisdom, ended with the reestablishment of a controlling hierarchy that favored wealth in place of royalty. Since then little has changed except that all the royal families were either murdered or made into national mascots. Money is why we pretty much do everything… It’s why we fight wars. It’s why we are told what to do and when to do it, and interesting enough why public schools were created. During the industrial age of the latter 19th century public schools were invented to produce two things: Workers & Consumers. Your entire education was for the purpose of making you good at making money for people who are already rich, be grateful for the opportunity, then die. Those that history remembers were the great thinkers, inventors, and entrepreneurs who essentially said, “To Hell with that!” But the vast majority of people lived, and continues to live, this way. Funny thing is, thanks to technology, this is no longer working. Advances in technology are creating an interesting dichotomy in economies of scale, in that future innovation is propelling society forward in two directions. The first is on employment of individuals who provide goods and services. Increasingly both manufacturing and service oriented industries require fewer and fewer people to function, as efficiency is increased in means of production, less labor is needed. More people will be fired and fewer people will be hired, especially young adults who lack professional experience and relationships with firms. This isn’t good but contributes greatly to the needed social adjustments to a better way of learning and living. The other way advances in technologies are shaping our future is in discovery. Information and knowledge is spreading faster than ever at increasing speed and ease of access. This is a generation where virtually anyone can learn anything they want, and instantly share information with the rest of the world.
Remember that word "Society"? Increases in the spread information and access to it has permanently changed communication and understanding and allowed all societies to be more collaborative than ever. The more collaborative a society, the more it can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis. Remember also that the “Natural Order” of things is often discovered through detection of a distinguishing pattern. The modern world increased interaction and sharing is for the exact same reasons and metaphorically identical to the increased interaction of primitive man transitioning into an agrarian based society during which the development of our ancient cities were created through increased interaction and sharing resulting from mutual the needs and benefits such connectivity satisfied and provided. We are here to today, because we are supposed to be, sociologically, economically, and evolutionary here. All of which… kind of makes this an exciting time to be alive.
