Say-So

Upon turning the last page of The Wisdom of Crowds I find myself wanting to remember key motifs about human behavior as an individual vs. that of a person when part of a group. They differ. People alter their actions, temperament, even beliefs when surrounded by others. More so, the degree and the type of action is fully determined by the constitution of the group within which one operates. For example depending of whether and how many “radicals” a group contains, is decisive in pushing the crowd over the threshold towards violence. James Surowiecki’s study enumerates conditions under which a crowd is at it’s best, creating the right balance and moral force for the individuals within it. It is also a manual on how to harness the positive group dynamic and turn it into a powerful and constructive decision making instrument. There is one observation which lingers with me however, tapering my excitement about this new societal power plant. It is the indisputable fact that learning is a “social process”. Herbert Simon is quoted saying:

A man does not live for months or years in a particular position in an organization, exposed to some streams of communication, shielded from others, without the most profound effects upon what he knows, believes, attends to, hopes, wishes, emphasizes, fears and proposes.

I very much agree and like to say that: we are all “victims” of our circumstance. Victims, because we are forever bound to experience a singular reality at one time, and usually lack the perspective and insight to all others which we are not part of. Surowiecki argues that:

… the more influence a group’s members exert on each other, and the more personal contact they have with each other, the more likely it is that we will believe the same things and make the same mistakes. That means it’s possible that we could become individually smarter but collectively dumber.

He lists Independence, specifically independence of thought as a critical factor for collectively wise decisions. When averagely informed members do not consult, their personal errors are odd and random and therefore don’t accumulate in the final aggregation of the group’s decision. When however, members of the group communicate and their judgment is a consensus or a co-informed decision, the margin of error is much greater. Imitation and interaction with Others is the way humans learn and develop personally. Ironically, it is exactly what is undesired for a collective intelligence.

When things don’t makes sense, when what you thought right is wrong, when all reference points have shifted resulting in a general confusion - the French say: “Le Nord est Perdu”. To the argonauts of the Arctic hemisphere, the North Star is a guide. But, it is a successive position. The usual shifting of the Earth’s axis points to a different star every couple of thousand of years.

In the case of the earth, precession is caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon. The earth’s axis makes one complete rotation over the course of approximately 26,000 years. If you trace the path of the axis in the sky, you will find that Polaris, Vega, Thuban, and Alpha Cephei all fall on or very close to it. So when the earth’s axis is at a point on the path near Vega, Vega becomes the North Star while Thuban is the North Star when the axis is near it on the path. Five thousand years ago, Thuban was the North Star. Five thousand years from now, the North Star will be Alpha Cephei. Seven thousand years after that, it will be Vega…

That is of course, if our Earth isn’t in the early stages of a Magnetic Reversal .

As a matter of geological record, the Earth’s magnetic field has undergone numerous reversals of polarity. We can see this in the magnetic patterns found in volcanic rocks, especially those recovered from the ocean floors. In the last 10 million years, there have been, on average, 4 or 5 reversals per million years. At other times in Earth’s history, for example during the Cretaceous era, there have been much longer periods when no reversals occurred. Reversals are not predictable and are certainly not periodic in nature. Hence we can only speak about the average reversal interval.

Certainty, or positive affirmation of any kind seems unattainable in a world where Ying and Yang are not only in constant flux, but worse - are perfectly interchangeable. So… which way Is North?

On a friend’s recommendation I watched The American Pimp, a Hughes brothers documentary. The suggestion was tangential. One of the pimps featured in the documentary - Fillmore Slim, inherits the name of his domain - the Fillmore street in San Francisco very near to where I live. Unlike The Take or The Motorcycle Diaries, which carry significant historical and social content yet are mediocre in their execution, The American Pimp is dynamic and rather well crafted but the content is only as significant as the few portrayed pimps, which is to say - not very. The documentary is a soapbox for the colorful but ignorant men who coerce the women in their care to work while they retain 100% of the profits. Payroll, C-Note, Bishop Don Magic Juan, Gorgeous Dre, Kenny Redd and Charm all have the same thing to say: Women can’t do without them. According to the pimps, the women also endearingly called “Bitches” wouldn’t know how to manage their money and “hoing” wouldn’t be as profitable if it wasn’t under the male care. “Hos” are a commodity, they can be acquired at a night club or stolen from another pimp. As a side note but perhaps not incidentally, a “commodity” as an article of “commerce”, commerce is synonymous with “sexual intercourse”. The pimps are the perpetrators. Its etymology is just as intriguing:

Latin perpetratus, past participle of perpetrare, from per- through + patrare to accomplish, from pater father — more at FATHER

Women in the “Game” seek out protection and leadership not inclined to take on full responsibility for their successes or failures, while the men complement the playing field with their drive to direct, instruct, patronize while drawing profit and gloating in status. The subculture of pimps and hos is only an acute hyperbole of the greater male female relations within a society at large. From the genetic makeup, through hormone tinted brain cells and physical attributes, women are receivers, men - disseminators. Within patriarchal societies which are the majority among human cultural systems, traditionally women are the second in command with males as heads of families. They are described at best as the “neck that rotates the head” and are passive agents at worst. Predominantly still, husbands, fathers or brothers, boyfriends or lovers depending on how liberal the society is, serve as a compass and a reference point within the scope of which women act and operate. In the West, the plight of the suffragettes and feminists of the 2oth century have resulted in the women’s voting rights, laws banning discrimination based on gender, sexual harassment laws, orders enforcing child support and violence against women act. The conditions have never been better for women to flourish and achieve their fullest potential and match men not only in the equal capacity we have for excellence and professional success but more importantly in the volume of ranks and files of capable, driven and independent women. That is, if we dare to step forward.