Stockbrokers have a saying which they cling to: "the trend is your friend". Today the trend is to form collectives [see photo]. Collectives rely upon strong social ties. When groups have strong social ties there is no mindspace left for misfits. In this environment the only outcome possible is a society that is defined by sameness.
When continuity, predictability, and risk aversion takes hold then you, your family, and your community stagnates. This process of entropy is destructive not constructive. It is destructive because it becomes a "closed system" which has all the feature of a religious cult. A cult is the ultimate product of a collective that demand strong ties between its membership. This type of organisation promotes coordination and collaboration which means the focus is on the internal management of assets. Within this cult-like culture each and every new issue is responded to [by managers] with more and more and more rules. And so there is an entropic cycle that forms the trend of the day. If this trend is your friend then expect to live a life of sameness that is enforced upon you and yours by totalitarian commands and rules.
Amazing times do not follow trends because they are rooted in communities with weak social ties. When social ties are weak then coordination is replaced by cooperation. And cooperation is based on trust not on rules. Trust empowers deviants, rogues, and social misfits as agents of change in a system that is open to outside influences. The greatest asset of an open system is that there are positive and negative feedback loops that inform the members of this community. When trust replaces rules as the comptroller of a human system then morals and ethics becomes an important element of management. Perhaps the key driver of trust within open system is the expansion of "sentience boundaries". When our focus shifts from task to sentience we see coordination being replaced by cooperation and compliance being replaced by individualism.
We have strong social ties in the West today and therefore the trend suggest we are heading into a modern version of 1984 if we are not there already. So is the trend truly your friend?
Richard.
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