Status - The Cause of Social Ills

There are two social systems, called status and synergy. Each lies at the opposite end of a continuum, so one operates at the expense of the other.

Status is a hierarchy, shaped like a pyramid and represents your standing of respect and esteem in the eyes of those people you see everyday; at its extreme it is referred to as a pecking order. Status functions as a competition to achieve acceptance and respect or to avoid rejection. Status operates on fear. Fear comes from the ego, who is located in the right limbic brain within your head. Status creates the insecurities that gives the ego the perfect milieu to operate and be in control. Status results in an ego dominated society.

Evolution actually favors community and the cooperative system of synergy. Ruth Benedict discovered a common characteristic or quality she referred to as "synergy," that ran throughout the different primitive cultures, she studied.(1)

In societies with low synergy or high status, every act that was to the advantage of the individual was a victory over another. There were strong beliefs in the ability of power to defeat and humiliate others. In these very competitive darwinian societies each would take what he could get. This rivalry often took the form of heaping up goods in competition; and sometimes even letting them rot, rather than share them with others.

Tribes with low synergy or high status were revengeful, acquisitive, jealous and greedy. They were very insecure people, for anxiety ran through out their society. Real power was believed to reside in those who could inflict the most harm; while those who would do good, by helping others had no power at all. They developed powerful gods whom they feared. They trembled in the presence of these gods, who used punishment and vengeance.

Members of tribes with high synergy greatly prized their personal skills, because any ability that was for the good of the individual, was at the same time good for the group, where members supported each other in a kind of social solidarity. Private possessions were treasured, because they could be shared with others. Since everyone is provided for, there was no fear of poverty. And anxiety was missing to a degree that seemed incredible to Benedict and her colleagues. These were societies of good will, where murder and suicide were virtually unknown.

They had kind gods with benign spirits whom they had no fear of, and brought benefits and protected them.

Status creates materialistic people; the quality and quantity of goods people own, creates a basis on which they can be judged or ranked. Efforts are misdirected to try to best others, to gain acceptance and move up the status ladder. A status seeker uses criticism for advancement, and create conflicts that interferes with the main objective of a group. Status competitiveness for acceptance keeps us armed, guarded and stressed.

The ego wants to be independent and separate from others, status achieves this for the ego, by creating a state of inequality among people. The inequity of status creates a separation among people. Those at the top are entitled to acceptance from all those below; those at the bottom are entitled to no acceptance from those above.

Status pecking orders can create a sense of not belonging for those near the bottom.

Even for those at the top, it creates self-doubt and uncertainty. The captain of the high school football team and the head cheerleader would feel insecure and be intimidated to be seen hanging with anyone near the bottom of the acceptance pyramid.

Synergy has a tolerant, flat, social structure, where people and harmless behaviors are accepted. Instead of the inequality of a vertical ranking, there is a trust of mutual support and acceptance from the people involved in a synergetic group. Mutual acceptance creates a sense of belonging among the families, groups or communities involved with synergy.

Status requires conformity to maintain control of the aggression it creates. The harmony of synergy curtails aggressions, allowing the freedom to promote the more stimulating and creative environment of multiformity.

Because of conflicts, status uses warnings and threats to get people to cooperate. As status becomes more prevalent, the need for threats and force becomes increasingly more common than the use of reason. Taken to the extreme, this was seen in the German nazi society.

Status does not encourage people to make use of their mental abilities. A mindless conformity results that depends on government, corporations, experts, marketing ads, and all the different forms of media, to tell others what to do and think. A status system needs a meek, obedient, compliant and dependent population. It cannot operate effectively with a self-sufficient people who would create conflicts with alternative ideas and options to those in charge.

Synergy uses cooperation where thoughts are creatively engaged, and intimidation is not required. Quantum physics shows the invisible realm and the intentions of your mind are involved in shaping matter. The mind and cooperation work together in harmony.

Status is entrenched by the criticism the ego can generate. The ego creates inequality by critically picking apart an endless list of how the self or others may be different. Your ability to know minute differences between people allows the ego to make critical inferences on these distinctions, that can lead to a separation, estrangement, or segregation among people.

People think these thoughts from the ego are their own, and are valid. When they hear the ego complaining in their head, complaining about the situation, about other people, about what's happening, or what should be happening, then they need to interrupt the ego's thoughts and not allow the ego's opinion to prevail. That's the ego's dysfunctional state of consciousness that condemns people to a state of perpetual discontent. Criticisms come from the ego. People should be aware of the unhappiness the ego creates with its criticisms.

Constructive criticism involved with your goals comes from you and the higher self, and is valuable. But when you experience criticisms of others, the self or your situation, emerge in your head, be aware that it comes from the ego. When you have gone along with these criticisms because you thought they were your own, you were empowering the ego to your emotional detriment.

(1) Maslow, A. H & Honigmann, J.J. Synergy: Some notes of Ruth Benedict American Anthropologist, 1970, Vol. 72, No. 1, 320-333.

The ego is a compulsive thinker; about 98% of the thoughts in the head of a typical person come from the ego. Thoughts from the ego are about the past or the future. For a thought to come from you, you have to be in the present, the now, and you make an effort to think, like when you plan, try to solve a problem, study or create something.

"The War Between the Ego and You; The Internal Battle for Control of the Self" has six reviews on Amazon.com with an average ratings of 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

Anger and fear cannot come from you, but they come from the insecurity of the ego. Whenever you experience worry, anxiety, hate, guilt and depression they come from the ego. There are four brains and four entities within your head, but you are the only one who is conscious. When the ego's brain was destroyed, peace and calmness was experienced.

The ego controls by default, because of your lack of awareness of its existence, of its abilities, and not knowing the abilities within you that can keep you in charge, as there are over two dozen, practical, 'hands on,' type behavioral tools that can keep you in charge to overcome fear and anger!

The reason people get divorced and don't get along is because of the ego. A dysfunctional family is created when its members have no understanding of the ego, and how the it's disruptive demands, influences and criticisms, create conflicts. By teaching kids at an early age to understand the ego, and arm them with the behavioral tools of control, they will be able to use these skills the rest of their lives.