The Sheep Instinct

I think the biggest thing standing in the way of human progress is a previous evolutionary adaptation -- behaving as the majority of a group does.

The adaptaion is that when you're in a group of people who all think the same thing, or are doing the same thing, you assume it's beneficial to your survival to also do it.

This makes sense in small groups. If you're homo erectus (lol) and all of the other homo erectuses (lololol) are chipping off the edges of flint stones to make stone knives and axes, then there's probably a good reason for it and if you did it too you could benefit as well.

The way communities all end up doing the same thing is that, first, some clever people come up with an idea (meme) which aids the survival of their genes in some way (it gets them more food, or makes them seem like a more "fit" mate, or whatever). That meme then propagates to the next ring of people: the "hip" ones who can recognize a good idea when they see it. Eventually it catches on with all of these "hip" people, and the number of people who this meme has infected continues to grow exponentially, until the numbers reach a critical mass. At critical mass, so many people are doing this thing that its benefits are blatantly obvious to everybody, and if anybody doesn't adopt this new meme, their genes will get left behind (and hence, the genes that made them resist the meme are destroyed). So, over many many years, we evolved to follow popular trends to benefit our survival.

Today, however, this adaptation presents a serious threat to not only progress, but our survival as a species. The adaptation begins to have negative effects when the group of people gets too big and BAD memes start to take hold of the mass mindset. The adaptation doesn't work well because it causes people to resist good ideas that are believed by a small group of people, since anybody going "against the herd" is seen to be suicidal or stupid (and a good candidate for removal from the gene pool). In small communities, this problem doesn't arise because small groups of people still have a good amount of influence, and if they just work hard enough, they can change it. There is less inertia and resistance to change since educating 5 or 10 people about why an idea is wrong isn't as hard as doing it to a million (especially with counter-education going on).

If somebody with conviction believes an idea that goes against the mass way of thinking, they'll be continually bombarded by the masses on all sides. It doesn't take long for one to start doubting one's own convictions when faced with so much opposition, especially if the opposing meme is quite tempting and insidious. Even the most strong-willed person will eventually become depressed and give up their idea if they face opposition from EVERYBODY (especially if it's active opposition, like ASS KICKING).

Today, corporate entities and the media wield enormous power over group-thinking by way of television, newspapers, books, movies, music, billboards, and general propaganda. A very small group of people now have the power to assert an idea onto a very large group of people. Within two generations, thanks to this control of the information, people have been turned into will-less idiots. Social change is blocked because any attempts are strongly resisted by the inertia of large-scale homogenized thinking, and the sheep instinct eventually squashes or depresses the subversive ideas.

History shows that the only way people have been able to break from the stagnation of the masses is to splinter off in a small group and disconnect themselves from the group's influence. This lightweight society allows more free and progressive thinking to emerge, which will grow and evolve into a better way of living. This small splinter group's good ideas will eventually get noticed by the "hip" people, and then by people who notice the "hip" people, and eventually reach that critical mass which allows it to reach the greater population.

These splinter groups need strong visionary leaders, however. It takes the incredibly strong will of somebody who recognizes the stagnation of the masses, can imagine a better future, and has the selfless drive to change it all for the benefit of everybody instead of devoting their life to the pursuit of selfish goals and happiness.

"... all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

Notes

This sheep instinct has been studied by whoever-studies-that-kind-of-thing. They call it pluralistic ignorance. It's related to the bystander effect, as well as the Somebody Else's Problem cloaking device.

It all boils down to cognitive dissonance, however, and can be explained in terms of Perceptual Control Theory.

The Corporate Machine

• corporations are like machines we have created to sap the planet of all its resources
• they are designed only to profit by whatever means necessary, and since they always require resources, they will not stop profiting until the resources are gone (or they become so expensive that you cannot profit from them)
• if a CEO chooses to "sabotage" his company to save the planet, he would be breaking the law. even if he did break the law, by sabotaging the company, he'd just be removed and the person below him would take his place.

Simplify, Man!

Politics and all the theory surrounding it is incredibly complex. I've been talking to my housemate about these articles I read, and I keep getting more and more complex theories thrown at me which there are entire books written about by great men from history.

Now, it's all well and good that these geniuses have gone to the effort of understanding all these complex ideas, and that people study them and try to learn as many as they can, but this presents a definite problem for most people in society. The average person has no grasp on what these decision makers are thinking since the work to just get to the same level as they are on is daunting, let alone the work required to actually learn about the issues they're discussing. (yes, a bit of an extreme characterization of the situation)

Anyhow!

It would be nice of society got refactored and simplified, because I believe that everybody must understand the basic rules and principles that they're supposed to operate under if society is to function.

For example, one fundamental principle would be that there are lots of different kinds of people in the world, all with conflicting views, and because of this we should all [whatever we should do to make this work well -- i dunno, separate into different states which contain the people of a distinct mindset or something]...

It makes more sense to have foremost in people's minds the philosophies of the system they're in, and not the rules.