Amerika

While most ignore civilization decay, it serves as the root of most problems people identify in modernity. It in turn is caused by the pressures of socializing in permanent civilization as well as the dysgenic effect of civilization, namely that it allows many to survive who would not in nature and therefore are less competent.

That peer pressure at the root of decay shows us why all human societies go down the same path: they have trouble resisting the guilt, criticism, neurosis, and judgment of others. As a result, they accommodate the less competent and make themselves less competent.

It turns out that socializing acts like a disease in spreading mental health problems:

A dose-response association was found, with no significant increase in later risk of 1 diagnosed classmate (HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00-1.02), but a 5% increase with more than 1 diagnosed classmate (HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.04-1.06). The risk was not proportional over time but was highest during the first year of follow-up, showing a 9% increase for 1 diagnosed classmate (HR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.04-1.14), and an 18% increase for more than 1 diagnosed classmate (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.13-1.24). Of the examined mental disorders, the risk was greatest for mood, anxiety, and eating disorders. Increased risk was observed after adjusting for an array of parental, school-level, and area-level confounders.

The findings of this study suggest that mental disorders might be transmitted within adolescent peer networks.

It stands to reason that if people around you are expressing insane thoughts and acting in insane ways, the behavior will rub off. You must achieve parity with them by doing as they do, or at least think enough like them to understand their thoughts, so soon their mental state infects yours.

The internet amplifies this effect because those “mood, anxiety, and eating disorders” lead to people wanting to get online and share their insanity with others. Social media attracts depressed people who then socialize on what they have in common, mostly being depressed:

Findings showed that participants who had higher social media use tended to be more depressed, and people who were more depressed also tended to use social media more. However, researchers found that social media use did not cause an increase or decrease in depressive symptom levels over time.

“We found that if you tended to be a person who was depressed, you were a person also spending more time on social media,” explains Vidal.

Researchers also found that higher levels of social media use and higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of green space exposure. In addition, cannabis use and higher eveningness were also associated with higher depressive levels.

Both socializing and social media tend to be egalitarian. That is, no one has any rank higher than any other; everyone is accepted, and whoever attracts the interest of the herd is king for a day. This leads to externalization of the ego where the individual is valued only for its ability to attract others.

We see this in modernity through the popularity contest of socialization, the dynamics of sexual attraction, and of course the promotion of the genial and skillful compromisers at careers. The hierarchy of ability is replaced by a popularity contest of social ability.

As it turns out, hierarchy provides more mental function:

In most scenarios, teams with a hierarchical structure performed better than those without, with one crucial caveat: workers must have the autonomy to judge the manager’s input when deciding what to do.

This tells us something unique: that society self-destructs by forming a mob based on peer pressure instead of a hierarchy based on ability, and in the process, drives itself insane by spreading mental disease throughout the herd. This eliminates a historical mystery.

For all of recorded history, every human civilization has self-destructed roughly the same way, namely by accumulating so many divergent psychologies that unity and goal disintegrate. It turns out that civilization is not its own enemy but socializing destroys it from within.

Tags: crowdism, hierarchy, mental health, peer pressure, social media, socializing