52
3 Social Forces
3.14 Culture: More Persistent Than Steel
It has often been claimed that civilizations were born out of war, and that the world is
ultimately ruled by those with the greatest military power. However, I don’t buy this.
Even though war certainly played a role in establishing the modern world, I believe
the main mechanisms underlying the spreading of civilization are migration and the
exchange of goods and ideas. Today, the Internet can certainly advance civilizations
in ways that don’t need to be paid by human lives.
But what is the basis of civilizations? It’s culture, and to a large extent, culture
is the result of numerous sets of rules, such as social conventions, values, norms,
roles, and routines.
53 These rules determine the success or failure of societies and
guide their evolution. Just take religious values for instance, which can determine
the behavior of millions of people for thousands of years. It is not an exaggeration,
therefore, to say that culture is more persistent than steel
54 and probably also more
relevant to the success of civilizations than weapons.
55 In other words, social forces
can be stronger than physical forces. A good example of this is ancient Greek culture,
which spread to the Roman occupants because it was more advanced.
3.15 Reducing Conflict
While we all learned about physical forces at school, very few people have an explicit
understanding of the social forces, which determine the behavior of socio-economic
systems. This has to change, if we want to overcome or at least mitigate the problems we are faced with. Conflicts, wars and revolutions can be understood as a
result of social forces, too. Certain forces can destabilize systems and cause them
to disintegrate. There are at least three types of conflict situations: (1) An encounter
(say, between two countries) causes losses on both sides. This might be avoided by
increasing the awareness of the likely outcomes of such an encounter in advance.
(2) The encounter is beneficial to one party but unfavorable to the other, and causes
damage overall. Here, the second party needs to be protected from exploitation (e.g.
through solidarity from third parties, or by separating the disputing parties). (3) The
encounter is advantageous for one side and undesirable for the other, but the overall
outcome is positive. In such situations, the benefits can be redistributed to make the
interaction beneficial for both sides, i.e. it’s possible to align interests to create a
win-win situation.
56
53 Helbing et al. [41], Helbing and Johansson [42].
54 It is surprising enough that one can cut steel with light (i.e. a mighty laser beam), but the persistence
of culture is even more astonishing.
55 Even though protection from aggression and exploitation is needed, of course.
56 I have recently proposed “Social (Information) Technologies” that aim to reduce the occurrence
of conflict between people and companies.
3 Social Forces
3.14 Culture: More Persistent Than Steel
It has often been claimed that civilizations were born out of war, and that the world is
ultimately ruled by those with the greatest military power. However, I don’t buy this.
Even though war certainly played a role in establishing the modern world, I believe
the main mechanisms underlying the spreading of civilization are migration and the
exchange of goods and ideas. Today, the Internet can certainly advance civilizations
in ways that don’t need to be paid by human lives.
But what is the basis of civilizations? It’s culture, and to a large extent, culture
is the result of numerous sets of rules, such as social conventions, values, norms,
roles, and routines.
53 These rules determine the success or failure of societies and
guide their evolution. Just take religious values for instance, which can determine
the behavior of millions of people for thousands of years. It is not an exaggeration,
therefore, to say that culture is more persistent than steel
54 and probably also more
relevant to the success of civilizations than weapons.
55 In other words, social forces
can be stronger than physical forces. A good example of this is ancient Greek culture,
which spread to the Roman occupants because it was more advanced.
3.15 Reducing Conflict
While we all learned about physical forces at school, very few people have an explicit
understanding of the social forces, which determine the behavior of socio-economic
systems. This has to change, if we want to overcome or at least mitigate the problems we are faced with. Conflicts, wars and revolutions can be understood as a
result of social forces, too. Certain forces can destabilize systems and cause them
to disintegrate. There are at least three types of conflict situations: (1) An encounter
(say, between two countries) causes losses on both sides. This might be avoided by
increasing the awareness of the likely outcomes of such an encounter in advance.
(2) The encounter is beneficial to one party but unfavorable to the other, and causes
damage overall. Here, the second party needs to be protected from exploitation (e.g.
through solidarity from third parties, or by separating the disputing parties). (3) The
encounter is advantageous for one side and undesirable for the other, but the overall
outcome is positive. In such situations, the benefits can be redistributed to make the
interaction beneficial for both sides, i.e. it’s possible to align interests to create a
win-win situation.
56
53 Helbing et al. [41], Helbing and Johansson [42].
54 It is surprising enough that one can cut steel with light (i.e. a mighty laser beam), but the persistence
of culture is even more astonishing.
55 Even though protection from aggression and exploitation is needed, of course.
56 I have recently proposed “Social (Information) Technologies” that aim to reduce the occurrence
of conflict between people and companies.