Humiliation Factor I, aphorism 205, The Mechanics of Virtue by Matt Berry

205

Humiliation Factor 1:  One type of overcrowding occurs when a population surpasses its means of communicating a network of social hierarchies as they are resolved through conflict.  There are too many competitors for too few rungs, and thus social stability is impossible, for one must have a rank, and now “society” functions like so many sailors clambering for too few ladders within a sinking ship.

  • With the ranking order of a species whose dominant trait is childish dishonesty, if one is not a cowboy, then one becomes an Indian.  If one shoots the other, the other denies it.


  • If one cannot hold to the top rung of any existing ladder, one builds a new ladder and upon which one can assign the rival to a lower rung.




A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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