Baseball Bats And Dominance Hierarchies

Introduction

Let us examine who’s more likely to baseball bat someone over the head. Here again, patterns in networked information reveal the metaphysical reality we inhabit. We discussed how lucky-duckies—the wealthy, the sun, and popular kids—attract money, matter, and social connections. These lucky-duckies are also atop their respective dominance hierarchies; they are the winners in the winner-loser continuum and examples of Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest.’

The Lessons of History

In The Lessons of History, the Durants argue that human interactions are manifestations of biology: competition, selection, and propagation.

Life is Competition – All living organisms, including humans, must compete for resources, survival, and dominance. This competition occurs at individual, group, and national levels. (If some manage to skip competing for resources it is because they are lucky and protected, but inevitably their groups compete to provide them with this security.)

Life is Selection – Nature favors the strong, intelligent, and adaptable. Over time, certain individuals and groups rise to prominence due to their ability to outcompete others.

Life Must Breed – Societies that fail to reproduce sufficiently (either biologically or culturally) will decline and be replaced by those that do.

Indeed, natural selection is also a form of networked effects – the traits that enhance survival and reproduction – tall, pretty people with thick lush hair and pearly white teeth – they propagate and dominate. While those who can’t get dates, their traits fade like farts in the wind.

Darwinism also shows how small advantages compound over generations, like autocatalytic feedback loops, which accumulate resources, influence, and power – the survival of the fittest. And because of the 80:20 rule, only a few lucky-duckies can rise to the top.

The Winner-Loser Continuum

The great lobster analogy highlights that these 480 million tasty little creatures that go so well with smoked-paprika infused garlic butter, behave much like trash-talk-fighting humans because of our shared neurotransmitters. Research into lobster brains and social interactions reveals that when lobsters compete for resources like shelters (there aren’t enough shelters for lobsters to shed their shells), there are winners and losers, which manifests in their neurochemistry, creating autocatalytic reactions.

If a badass lobster needs a home, they try to snatch one. In the beginning both lobsters start with high levels of serotonin, displayed by their impeccable posture: they stand tall, strut and fuss. If the battle proceeds, they excrete fluid from glands below their eyes to communicate health and stamina status—much like human posture and the quantity of collagen in one’s face showcases vitality. Next, someone is losing a limb and when the dust settles a clear winner and loser emerge. Unfortunately for the loser – their brain breaks: a surge of octopamine bums them out, contracts their posture as an octopamine autocatalytic reaction takes hold. Coincidentally, when researchers feed losing lobsters prozac they fight again because much like in humans, prozac cures depression with a shot of serotonin. On the flip side, winning brains stand tall – pumping serotonin.

Herd Culture

Just like winning lobsters secure the best shelters near great food in lobsterland, the biggest chickens position themselves at the front of the coop for the best food. This pattern scales to human societies where senior vice presidents and directors get the best pay and live in the best communities with great schools and hospitals.

The lucky-duckies, with their winning neurological autocatalytic feedback loops also accumulate the most real estate, the 20% with 80%. (It’s worth noting the story of Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian polymath of The Pareto Principle who was an avid gardener and observed that 80% of his pea harvest came from 20% of his plants. This would inspire him to investigate municipal data and he discovered that 80% of properties were owned by 20% of the population.) Entry-level employees, the slaves at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy, live in crime-ridden, stab-you-in-the-face communities. Thus, location-location-location showcases how networked information’s 80:20 rule manifests in the form of communities too.

Location-Location-Location

Much like winning lobsters secure the best shelters near great food in lobsterland, the biggest chickens position themselves at the front of the coop for the best food. This pattern scales to human societies, where senior vice presidents and directors get the best pay and live in the best communities, with great schools and hospitals. They are the lucky-duckies, with their winning neurological autocatalytic feedback loops.

Are You A Slave, Prostitute, Or Lucky-Ducky?

What’s the difference between a slave, prostitute and lucky-ducky?

Slaves are full-time employees working for one business entity. Prostitutes are contracted workers servicing multiple business entities.

More often than not, slaves and prostitutes are married with mouths to feed, mortgages to pay and financial obligations that make them do uncomfortable things, like get their knees dirty.

Where slaves aren’t typically the prettiest, tallest, or cleverest and lack the ability to seduce anyone into anything, prostitutes excel in this domain.

Singing for their suppers, slaves and prostitutes serve the lucky-duckies who sit atop the dominance hierarchy, controlling slaves and prostitutes, and creating autocatalytic reactions to collect money and power.

How does one become a slave, prostitute or lucky-ducky?

Slaves, prostitutes and lucky-duckies are born into it.

In Conclusion

Because information distribution in the universe dictates that there are winners and losers (most are slaves, some are prostitutes, very few are lucky-duckies) we can deduce that socialists and liberals are losers; they tame their inherent Darwinian instincts to rape, pillage, and plunder – creating ethical frameworks they refuse to defile: lying, cheating, and stealing. On the flip side, winners who embrace these dark traits with buttery smooth words and seductive pick-up lines like the “maker vs. taker,” are most likely to baseball bat someone over the head to win – the most cunning will even pretend to be liberals, if there’s power to be gained.

Time to learn what life is really all about….

Next Essay: Learn The Meaning Of Life