The Role of Decomposition 9/1/19

  INTRODUCTION
 Like biological organisms, sociological organisms benefit from culling and recycling. As social organisms dominate their environment, social predators rise to cull and recycle. Their benefits include speeding social evolution and devolution.
 DISCUSSION
 I was amazed as I realized some of the parallels between the behaviors of biological organisms and those of sociological organisms (individuals, families, tribes or nations).     

  Role of Decomposition in Biological Systems  
  In the case of biological organisms the full cycle of life begins with initiation. It continues through growth, maturation, reproduction and finally death. Each death clears the way for the next generation and genetic innovation. A host of organisms awaits to decompose corpses making the nutrients available for future generations.    
  Not all organisms live the full cycle. There are predators eager to recycle any weak being before its time. These predators range from single celled bacteria and viruses to four legged multi-cellular beings. The single cell predators can kill individuals too weak to defend against them or they can wait until the individual dies. These are the recyclers who quickly return the nutrients of a dead body to the environment. The multi-cellular predators devour the tissues of the dead in a similar function. They, too, can kill living beings too weak to avoid or defend against them, culling the gene pool and benefiting the weak being's species. Culling limits diversity as generations support it.  
  There are no survival benefits from decomposition for the individual organism undergoing it. The species benefits from the minimizing the time a corpse can be a breeding ground for agents of decomposition, reducing the threat to living organisms. The species also benefits from the deletions of inadequate genes from its pool.  
 Decomposition in Sociological Systems  
  The overall cycle of life for sociological organisms is similar to biological organisms: initiation, growth, maturation, advance, retraction and expiration. Where biological organisms reproduce by making copies of themselves, sociological organisms just grow through population increase and absorption of other sociological organisms. The only cloning that happens is the result of a civil war or peaceful separation.    
  A sociological organism matures by advancing up through the stages of social evolution. The advance peaks, plateaus and then the recycling begins as it retracts from its outer boundaries and descends through stages until it is ready to reinitialize or be absorbed by other societies. A complete collapse of a failed society can end in a territory at the Individual stage of pre-society providing the opportunity for the rise of a completely new society.  
  Nature has crafted complex paths to recycle dead and sometimes living biological organisms. Sociological organisms have similar forces at work. Throughout the cycle of life there are recycling agents within and without all societies. If the society is strong it can defend against toxic influence of excesses and violence. A society that becomes weak will succumb to external predators (being conquered) or internal chaos (disorder and corruption). A society that becomes stagnant denies progress to following generations and limits diversity. Without the motivation of survival or progress, most societies become corrupt and decompose.  
  Stages of society naturally decompose into previous stages. A global society grows out of national societies and returns to national societies if it fails. A nation's cooperating tribes may revert to competing tribes, ending the nation. If it is a violent end, or attempt to end, it is called civil war. A failing tribe will revert to families and failing families will revert to individual behaviors. Mobs are temporary tribes. Panics are temporary reversion to individual behavior. In cases of catastrophic failure of societies people may revert through several stages at once.  
  There are always predatory forces within a society waiting for a opportunity to decompose it, to recycle it. We all have the genes and instincts of all previous societies in us waiting to be called forth when needed. We practice these less evolved behaviors benignly when we maintain our commitment to and identify with our primary social stage. Even so, not everyone participating in a stage of society has the same level of commitment to it or even capacity for it. These are some of the elements of decomposition residing in every society just as there are traces of toxic agents residing in every biological organism.  
  Nature has carefully crafted conflicting behaviors within and between species to support the flexibility of a dynamic equilibrium. In tribes the reinforced instinct of conformity defines the tribe yet the instincts to rebel, to explore, to innovate persist. If the tribe's traditions become obsolete faster than they can evolve, it is time for the rebels to recycle the traditions.  
  Just as species benefit from the elimination of inadequate genes, humanity benefits from the elimination of inadequate societies. Decomposition and recycling of obsolete and inferior societies speeds the evolution of progressing and advanced societies. The absorption of weaker societies by stronger ones allows for the continuation of useful knowledge and skills present in the weaker society. Lethal competition between societies, predation within the species, continues the motivation of survival that is eliminated as humanity dominates other species. Competition also serves to intensify the identity among and diversity between peer societies.    
  It is well known that children instinctively strive to please and cooperate with their parents while at the same time testing the resolve of the parent's discipline. When children reach adolescence they seem to extend their instinctive tendency to test the disciplines of their family to those of their larger society. If the society is not strong enough to contain these rebellions, children and adolescents will recycle the society. Children challenge traditions with particular impact in adolescence which is why so many societies have rites of passage to reinforce training at that time. Children are agents of recycling and decomposition of human societies.  
  A society defined by its government has additional decomposing elements. At either end of the political spectrum lie extremists. Extremists are characterized by their ideology: absolute and exclusive beliefs. They are bigots: they are absolutely right and anyone who disagrees with them is absolutely wrong.    
  Moderates lie at the middle of the political spectrum. As opposed to bigots, they are characterized by their ability to consider two or more perspectives at the same time. Moderates can have productive conversations with less moderates. Less moderates can have productive conversations with even less moderates so long as they are in the same end of the political spectrum. The jobs of the moderates are to accomplish practical work and to constrain the extremists. The extremists' job is to decompose things, to destroy things. If you need to recycle a government, extremists are what you need but they are incapable of creating a functioning government in its place.  
  If the moderates from one side are purged from the spectrum, two things happen. The extremists gain power on that side (jail break) and the moderates from the other side become radicalized (less moderate). An extremist conflicting with a moderate will eventually yield two, opposing extremists.  
  Extremists are intoxicated with certainty which they maintain by denying and rejecting any contrary perspectives. They are powerful recyclers of advanced societies.  
  Like biological organisms, societies lose vitality in old age becoming too weak to sustain or defend themselves. External aggression by other societies can recycle a weakened society abruptly in violent conquering. This is pure bullying.  External cultures can gradually seduce a society away from its identity. If the change is beneficial to the society it is evolutionary. If it is not beneficial it is corruption.  
  Biological species have populations limited by available food and predator populations. Both biological and social organisms have populations densities limited by sanitation. Technology in agriculture, storage and transportation postpone the the food limit on population. Technology in sanitation, health care and hygiene postpone the disease limit on population density. Our increasing population densities and mobility do leave our species extremely vulnerable to epidemics if not pandemics of novel diseases. Our increasing population densities do leave our species extremely vulnerable to crop failure and climate catastrophe. The limits are still there.