Everything Is Dominance Hierarchies
muslimmusings.substack.com
muslimmusings.substack.com
Child has ego → wants to be important → demonstrates a certain talent → identifies a dominance hierarchy predicated on that talent → consumes the mythology of the intrinsic importance of that dominance hierarchy, storied by generations of those who climbed it → spend your life climbing to the top of that dominance hierarchy.
For me it is: child has fun, wants to continue to have fun → realizes he has the most fun making things with people he loves → realizes society won't let him do what he wants to do unless he checks arbitrary boxes → spends time having fun making things instead of checking boxes → spend life trying to find a comfortable place to have fun making things and enjoying family.
The author may deny my internal motivations and assume I'm self-deluded all they want, but I am quite convinced that I know myself far better than them. I'm interested in having done things I find meaningful, not being someone of importance, and the actions of my life back up that assertion.
This article is an overly simplistic view of the world and human motivations. You get to choose if this is how you live your life, and you really can choose purpose and values other than ego. Ego and greed may be the norm for modern culture, and may be the typical way that the corporate world operates, but it is certainly not the only way. It's almost narcissistic how much it assumes that everyone else's motivations are exactly like the author's.
Everything that we have, do, eat, wear has monetary value. People learn to live within their means, but still, it takes a certain privilege to say "life is more than just money".
I think the author is defining a bare, to-the-metal viewpoint. It's not the prettiest way of looking at the world, but it's hard to argue that it's incorrect.
It really only takes the realization there was a world before accounting. There is more to life than just money.
That is my argument though. Dominance hierarchies are one foundational lens through which to view the world, yes I agree. However, it is not the only one, and if you were to use that lens to try to understand, for example, my motivations and my life choices, you would come to incorrect conclusions. It is possible to interpret my life choices through the lens of ego-driven pursuit of dominance, but that interpretation will not lead to an accurate understanding. You can overfit that model to my life, but it will not have predictive power because it is fundamentally an incorrect model through which to understand my motivations.
The folks who subscribe to it can be hard to engage with to varying amounts. XKCD-435 is a good example of ingroup positioning relates to intra-group positioning.
I'm turning 40 this year and it's very possible to find social groups who that don't engage in this worldview. Being part of a group that practices listening and support brings me joy and hopefully joy to others.