Today, I visited a strange place. It was a place where the laws of physics are different then where I come from. A place where creatures have the most irrational behaviors I have ever seen, but rationalize everything they do! From what I can make of this strange world, it seems like chaos is a way of life. But I’m not one of them so maybe I just don’t understand. I’m just an observer after all.
What I noticed was the formation of a coallition of individuals I will refer too as factions. After factions were created, they begain claiming ownership of a portion of the planet. Some of these claims were contradictory; two factions insisted they were the true owners of a particular region or zone. This in turns lead to increased aggressiveness between factions. Eventually, factions claimed every piece of land in their name until there was none left to claim.
Above and beyond the fight for land, factions are consistently in competition with each other over all sorts of things! They try to be better than everyone at something specific. They want to be the first to do actions that have never been done before. They exploit their own strengths and align their efforts to the causes they are competing on, while taking advantage of their competitor’s weaknesses. They even send spies to gather information or sabotage competitor’s efforts. They send thieves to steal things that do not belong to them. Sometimes, factions who are working toward similar goals form alliances, but those never last. Eventually, one party feels like the other is benefiting more from the collaboration so they end it. Indeed, inhabitants of this world are by far the most self serving creatures I have ever observed.
Strangely, I noticed that cells are formed within each faction. These cells essentially operate and have the same motives as factions in the sense that they are made up of competing individuals who work together to influence the world they are part of. In this case, they exist to influence or control the faction they are part of, and sometimes other factions as well. And like collaboration between factions, collaboration between cells does not last very long. Individuals forming the cells change constantly until there is an ultimate collapse of the cell.
Strangely enough, the same phenomenon occurs with factions. Over time, they collapse. This occurs over a much longer period then the collapse of cells, but they collapse. Then reform as a different faction.
I also noted that this behavior is driven completely by individuals. Individuals have more influence in this world when they are in larger numbers, or when they have superior skills, knowledge and assets.
Individuals who live on this planet are very creative, and their creativity keeps them in total chaos. During my study of this world, I witnessed the creation of many tools. The one most relevant to my studies was a tool called “currency” which is globally spread across all factions, with slight variations, but the general concepts remains the same. You see, because of their self serving nature, creatures of this world insist on being rewarded for anything they do. Currency enables a measurable way of securing rewards. The tools of currency consist of paper and metal modified to reflect the faction of origin, are interchangeable between most factions. The entire economy of this world is based on the same principles and factors that lead to the creation of factions. This is partly related to individualism, and partly related to the eternal quest of being better than everyone else.
Originally, leaders of factions where the most favored to benefit from the outputs of the faction. Little did these creatures know that they would in fact give away this control with the introduction of currency. You see, in this world were currency is interchangeable between factions, and where most individuals seek to acquire the instruments of currency, currency itself became more powerful than any faction member or leader, and all factions became dependent of currency. Since most people knew they could not likely become leaders of factions, they instead turned to the accumulation of wealth. Individuals who amassed a certain amount of wealth, and who used it adequately became more powerful than any faction leaders. Because currency was a widespread tool, it was more feasible to acquire wealth than faction leadership. It was also more practical. Those with wealth had the power to influence individuals who were interested in acquire some of that wealth. In turn, these individuals formed cells and cells influenced factions.
At this stage in the evolution of the civilization, things really got chaotic. With wealth came control of individuals, but also of skills and knowledge, which are fueling the creative process of these creatures. What happened next was certainly to be expected, yet everyone was shocked when it did. Wealthy individuals formed cells, trained and equipped its members and, like animals, returned to aggression. Factions completely lost control, and remain to this day in denial of this loss.
What happens next? Faction leaders turn to control mechanisms which in turn impact faction members negatively, resulting in the apparition of additional cells composed of individuals driven by similar motives.
It’s a strange place in deed. It’s a place where everyone knows that the planet orbits around the sun, where the planet rotates on an axis. Yet individuals who live there run in complete circles without even realizing it. The only constancy in this chaos is the continual increase in knowledge and skills which result in increased creativity and technology.
So if by nature, individuals of this strange place are greedy, selfish, self serving individuals who spend their lives equipping themselves with tools to manipulate other individuals, how can they be satisfied? What will it take for them to say “There! I’ve done it!” and move away from running around in circles?
I don’t know what the answer is. My observation of these creatures is incomplete and I am left with a simple question with no answer. What I do know however is that these individuals better figure out the solution fast. If they keep fueling their creativity, skills, knowledge and technology, but remain in a state of chaos, then they will ultimately self destruct. And perhaps this is unavoidable in the end. I’m not sure. All I know is that these humans are the strangest creatures I have ever encountered in my travels.
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