Our group labels are a big problem, and they are being used to manipulate us.
Humans are so caught up in our group labels that we don't realize the effect it is having on our society. Group labels divide us, and make society-wide group problem solving very difficult. Problems should be solved one at a time by ideas, not by adherence to labels. Our allegiance should be to the solution, and the solution should be tied to metrics and results, always open to criticism and improvement.
The human drive to belong to a group is so powerful that it can override even our most basic instincts, like eating, sex, or seeking pleasure. History and psychology are full of examples - from fraternity hazing to extreme initiation rites - where people willingly endure humiliation, pain, or danger just to be accepted by a group. Those in positions of power understand this. They exploit our deep need for belonging, using it to shape our behavior, control our choices, and keep us aligned with the group - even when it goes against our own best interests.
When we reduce our made-up group labels down to the only label that matters - “humanity” - we can see the truth: we are all unique. Labels detract from our individual uniqueness, and our ability to be creative and original.
The way to fix this is to find ways to unify as humanity, and solve problems together. For example, against our common enemy, the corruption of our systems.
Just look at some of these labels that divide us:
....labels such as left, right, boy, girl, Nazi, Jew, straight, gay, immigrant, racist, capitalist, Democrat, Republican, libertarian, climate denier, science denier, woke, cis, fascist, woman, MAGA, Trumper, socialist, communist, terrorist, anarchist, neoliberal, globalist, nationalist, patriot, extremist, radical, centrist, populist, elitist, conspiracy theorist, Zionist, anti-Zionist, Antifa, neocon, isolationist, progressive, snowflake, boomer, Gen Z, millennial, white privileged, person of color, anti-vaxxer, pro-vaxxer, gun nut, gun grabber, insurrectionist, peaceful protestors, NPC ... you get the picture.
This is not the way. Unless your label helps solve a specific problem, it hinders group problem solving overall. The people in power know this. That's why shortly after the Occupy and Tea Party movements started aiming their sights on the corruption together, Wall Street ramped up the group labels. They wanted us fighting each other, not them. All publications started using divisive group labels at a massively increased rate. For example the use of the words ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’ in the New York Times increased over 400% from 2012 to 2019.
They know that by putting us into groups they can make us focus on each other, and it prevents us from focusing on the real problem - the people who are corrupting our systems.
We learn this from collective intelligence systems. Solutions in groups optimize when during the answering process all the people in the group are anonymous, and instead are only represented by their ideas or answers. There are no group labels at all. When a system runs like this, the answers with the highest confidence scores are most consistently produced.
Groups of people can be amazing problem solvers that change skylines or invent new theories in fundamental science that alter humanity for the better. Or, we can be horrible war mongering tyrants. The way to achieve amazing group problem solving and avoid tyranny starts with avoiding labels. Then we can work from the bottom up by starting with the problem, and using decentralized, transparent systems to make decisions.
Can you name one time where tyranny didn’t have a group label? We can’t. As far as we can tell, tyranny has never existed without group labels first. It is required. There must be “the others” in order for there to be tyranny.
This is what happens with labels in groups: Labels lead to echo chambers. Echo chambers lead to groupthink. And groupthink leads to tyranny.
In that order.
But the opposite is also true.
Hard to corrupt high-trust collective intelligence systems and label-free group problem solving is how we achieve unity instead of division. It is also how we can make what Tim Urban calls “SUPER GENIES” in his book “What’s Our Problem?” and avoid “GOLEMS.”
Right now the world could use some genies.
Let’s drop our group labels and solve problems one at a time. After all, we are one humanity. And that is the only group label that matters.
Thanks for reading, you unique individual, you.
All problems that do not defy the laws of physics are solvable with the right knowledge - David Deutsch
Humans solve problems better in high-trust groups, and solving problems is happiness!
#CollectiveIntelligence
For over 3 billion years on this planet there were only single-celled organisms. Then one day they somehow learned to work together and make complex multi-celled creatures . Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better… (like we wrote about here).
#SwarmAcademy #NetworkState #LEADERLESS #ResultsMatterMost #DecentralizeEverything #DemandTransparency
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This is how we change the world. We build genies - systems of people like this:
