Evolution of emerging order

Premise – The social order moves towards efficiency.  Why?

Reasons for:
 – competing social orders fight and need to survive the conflicts 
Reasons against:
 – without a competition social order can freeze and do not develop for centuries;
 – interests within social order could resist change.

Mechanism of evolutionary pressure

Conflict is an extreme exertion of energy and resources for people and groups. 

If social order survives an unsuccessful conflict – it has an opportunity and demand to change to survive impending conflicts. 

Even if conflict had a successful outcome – it could lift and shift the participants by exposing them to new lands, new acquaintances, and new possibilities, and catalyze the demand for a change.

Evolutionary pressures inside and outside the social order 

Premise – Every group within the social order and every individual within the group are also striving for efficiency for survival.
Why?  If we think of a group as an organism, we could allow the desire for survival and proliferation.

Premise – There is no clear march toward bigger and more complex groups.
Environment and conflicts define the optimal efficient group size. Although, large groups tend to persevere longer than needed due to strong internal interests. 

Social order as a modular organism, has three evolutionary pressure vectors: 
 – Pressure to disintegrate – internal pressure from smaller sub-units for independence. 
 – Pressure to preserve the status quo – preserve the benefits of current social order and current group size.
 – Pressure to grow – pressure to include more lands, more people, more resources. Think of it as four layers of protection are better than three. 

The struggle between these 3 evolutionary vectors will employ blind experiments mixed with prior experience to find the recipe that works for a given challenge.

Change occurs every day in daily interactions as a response to changing circumstances. Change within social order doesn’t not need to be written down to occur.

Changes within social order can be categorized along these axes:
 – LIFE STYLE – changes in predominant lifestyle (forage or cultivate, migrate or stay).
 – EQUALITY – Movement towards or away from equality for its members (including gender differences).
 – FREEDOM – changes in restrictions, punishments, and freedoms (movement, family, property, loyalty to the group).

There is no good or bad in evolutionary change. It is a random change. Beneficial will stay, harmful will be eliminated. There is no direct evolutionary benefit (or harm) in various levels of freedom and liberty. They are benefits if they create a more competitive, strong social order, and they are menace if they make the group weaker. Every new and existing aspect of social order gets tested for the current specific environment with the changing set of circumstances. What works – stays. What harms – either kills the group or allows it to survive till the next conflict (internal or external).

Summary

—01— There are no absolute all-time positives and all-time negatives in social order search for better recipes for survival. 

—02— Conflict intensifies evolutionary pressure and catalyzes change. The change is driven by weaknesses and performed via blind search for a solution.

—03— Social order is sustainable if it spending minimal efforts to fight internal conflicts for the benefits of its members.

—04— Change can be harmful or beneficial, but it is never absolute. Change is a response to a blind search for a solution. 

—05— Pressure to change increased during extended conflicts.  Conflict catalyzes the change. Change (reform or revolution) often comes during or after the conflict (war, natural disaster).

Note:  Usage of terms social order and group – When there is a need to emphasize the difference in sizes, we use term group as a smaller unit within a social order.