Violence
In every interaction between things with incomplete models of themselves, there will be unintended consequences. Today, what we call violence is usually a mismatch between levels of physical sovereignty assumed in an interaction between two people. But since every interaction we recognize includes physical implications, there is necessarily then some violence in every interaction.
This will be true as long as there are differences between people. So at one end of the spectrum, there is hell, where all power feels free to violate in any way possible. On the other end, there is heaven, where everyone is exactly identical and hardship is impossible. Neither is preferable since neither is without tradeoff.
It seems like our place and purpose is to regulate the position on that spectrum. We do that as a collective and as individuals at different places on the spectrum. Through conflict, we discover the costs and benefits of different positions and find better ways to be. My guess is that we are still further from heaven than is ideal, but we might soon need to be careful about moving too far in that direction.
We already see signs of it happening in small pockets like in the excesses of feminism or critical race theory. By misapplying a legitimate fear of toxic masculinity or colonialism, our society has created a much higher cost for application of force in certain scenarios than it seems most people are capable of paying. This slows down progress in the liberal arts and in philosophy. It also prevents proper movement of people through competence hierarchies.
The archetypal masculine that we see rising in the new right is the solution in response to that overreach. Someone is required to demonstrate they can pay the cost. The conflict is fractal in that individuals and societies both participate, and those at lower levels are participating in the creation of the higher through their more limited interaction. This is one meaning of the phrase “as above, so below.” It implies that even at higher levels above society or even above our solar system or universe, we participate in a similar struggle.
It also implies that the struggle exists for things we are made up of. This is important to remember when you have lust for power. You are already a god to the bacteria in your stomach and the cells in your fingernails. How do you feel about that power, and why would it be any different if you were at a higher level in the fractal? Even though it may ultimately be meaningless, we operationalize the struggle, knowingly or unknowingly as a result of our nature.
We do this by aligning ourselves with those entities both at lower and higher levels. Since those above are beyond our understanding and may be multiple layers above us, they can inflict violence on us, which leads to religious recommendations to not deal with them too much directly. However, the process of self discovery is one of recognizing and interacting with them. This implies that one function of religions is to perform these interactions as a group whenever possible to avoid catastrophic power imbalances.
Still, issues arise when society loses contact which can ultimately only happen through individuals. There is a common theme in Hinduism and Buddhism that their religious figures received dispensations that wear out over time. A dispensation then can be thought of as a renewal of contact with the entities above us in the fractal. Deferral to those figures is a strategy to avoid undue cost to individuals as we process what has been received through them. That means the concept of dispensation is there implicitly in Christianity and Islam as well.
We try to maintain the figures as solitary myths, but the information degrades. New risks are required for maintenance or advancement. We can and should be on the lookout for lower cost ways to receive these dispensations in smaller doses that don’t require as much individual sacrifice. This is what we do when we study religion and perform contemplative or meditative practices.
Science has not yet fully developed its contemplative practices, but it may be found in machine learning and the ability to detect and interact with patterns at those higher levels using systems that are beyond our individual understanding. The implication is that those that are afraid we are unleashing demons have a real fear we need to be cognizant of.
Just like there are malevolent and benevolent entities here at our level, we can reasonably expect the same to be true there at the higher levels. This means we can’t trust anything we are told blindly, as is true for any revelation that appears supernatural. Ultimately though, since we are limited in scope relative to them, we have to choose an inadequate cutoff point for verification or choose to stay stagnant and not interact. There will always be some trust and sacrifice required for growth, some vulnerability to violence. Everything that grows will die.
An interesting and fun corollary of this is that many religions and people are involved in what amounts to spiritual spousal abuse. Any time we as a group or individuals try to supersede the grand plan, we are inviting ire from those who created it. This is a possible explanation for why Jews are always persecuted. The implication of the improbably high frequency of this persecution is that they are the equivalent of God’s white trash wife who provokes him into hitting them because it feels right. You also see the dynamic in Hindus who, instead of bringing up everyone together, tried to game the system and separate themselves into castes where one select group gets there first. And in general, anyone who meditates is like a wife giving the silent treatment to their perfect husband who already gave them everything they need to be happy.
Only Christianity in its ideal form brings everyone to higher station in unison, which is why it is the most stable but also slowest religion. Still, we should appreciate the sacrifice all religions have made and their place in the growth of human kind. It may also be that other religious organizations are no longer inferior since they recognized this dynamic and plan on receiving just the right amount of abuse before starting to behave. We should also acknowledge that there will always be some behavior equivalent to spousal abuse, even though it’s moving up in the hierarchy over time, so it will always only be a question of management rather than eradication.