Just as we're conceived and killed, we divide and conquer.

It's okay. This is a natural part of our evolutionary protection. While physical needs and security is fundamental to our survival, we've also evolved into an innately social species. This means that we draw dotted divisions of Us vs. Them in the most curious of social ethics exhibitions. This is a trait of humanity that we must recognize and embrace to power our own independent collective objectives.  Feeble minded acolytes wish to excise this evolved social protection mechanism of humans. They're oblivious to the meta irony of all that, and the reality of how fundamental social ethics reappear into translucence when quashed.

I'm really not qualified to go into how this came to be or why we became this way through our inbreeding. I can observe how Otherism manifests in moving groups of collective Humans to do great/terrible/whatever things.

Productive humans are active creatures, spiked with a cruel, curious anxiety that keeps us measuring against our peers and foes alike. We scheme and finagle our way to get what we want – whatever it is that we value as individuals (knowledge, money, power, travel, experience, talent, fame, likes and Instagram followers). Most get confused by this evolutionary side effect because they don't always step back and acknowledge another's actions based on a value agnostic of their own bubble. Needless to say – seeing the forest from the trees (I am terrible at analogies but I think I used this one appropriately – or I hope I did).

People place an immense effort into projecting and enforcing their own sacred values. These are an amalgamated product of our environments and experiences, derived from an internalized shitlist of senseless devaluations. Devaluations act as props for our ego's personal insular values (Seme-Values).

Seme-Values

Tommy: "you know my coworker, Ramin? that douchebag who is jealous that my boss comes to me to plan our sprints even though he's a level above me?  he's the guy who only wears ralph lauren branded polo shirts to work and spends half his salary on his Tesla car payment. He backstabbed me at work yesterday let me tell you the story ... [edited]"

I'll spare you Tommy's story to protect you from falling asleep at the droll of other people's work drama.

Awhile back, I invited several of my social caste network's "friends" (including sad backstabbed Tommy) to attend a TedTalk on personal satisfaction through mindfulness – or some kind of personal philosofaux. The speaker walked out on stage, with his popped collar on his tangerine Ralph Lauren polo shirt tucked in neatly to his seven for all mankind jeans. He spoke with a Kiwi accent, which I understood as a free pass for his objectionably popped collar. However, from then on, Tommy grumbled about how much he despised Australia, how he never met one he liked. I noted that the speaker wasn't even Australian, he was from New Zealand. That didn't really matter. Throughout the entire presentation while seated near the rear of the auditorium, Tommy mocked and trolled the speaker under his breath. It was especially difficult for me to understand what mumbojumbo the speaker was talking about as I tried to decipher the speech, his accent, all through Tommy's repetitive grousing.

A few days later Tommy and my social caste network went to a social outing at a local brewery. We talked of some past and future travels and the inevitable white people group conversation topic of "visiting all of Lady Earth's notable continents" came up. Another friend, Billy, recounted that he'd already visited every continent except for Antarctica and Australia – and that he'd visit Antarctica but will never go to Australia because he doesn't like them. Suddenly a Seme-Value derived from Tommy's direct dislike of his backstabbing coworker and his polo shirts, transferred into Billy's Uke-Value, a passive distaste and rejection of Australia.

Uke-Values

Just as devaluations prop our ego, devaluations within our network rub off as Uke-Values. Tommy doesn't like his backstabbing coworker, Ramin. He doesn't like Ralph Lauren polo shirts because it reminds him of Ramin. He kind of doesn't like Australia now because the TedTalk speaker's accent resembled an Australian. Billy doesn't know Tommy's backstabbing coworker, but he picked up on Tommy's distaste of the TedTalk speaker and has discovered his new dislike of Australia.

He'd really done his research too! Billy posited the following rhetorical questions to prove his point on the inferiority of Australia.

• "Can you name one famous Australian literary figure?"
• "What culinary feats has Australia brought to this world aside from Awesome Blossom?"
• "Why is Australia considered a continent when Greenland isn't – and Europe is on the same tectonic plate as Asia – yet the cultural division between Europe and Asia... the flora and fauna ... ??"

Sorry I lost Billy at that point. He was wholeheartedly, categorically against Australia. Remind me to choose my next social caste gathering at the Outback Steakhouse.

Humans have a proclivity for senselessly valuing/devaluing associated tastes/likes/distastes/hates of our social caste networks. At the same time, internal rivalries within our own social caste network can develop into new divisions to be Us as Better than the Others – through incoherent outright mockery – like planning the next gathering of our social caste network at the Outback Steakhouse. Let's watch Billy self destruct at the notion of going there in the first place and not go, or let's watch him take it in stride and bite his tongue, or watch him eat the Awesome Blossom and tell us he's changed his mind about about Australia's culinary contribution to mankind, or have him tell us it's good but it's rightfully not actually Australian food, just a form of American capitalistic appropriation through namesake. Uke Values are the embodiment of a value through someone else, typically a lover or member our social caste network.

My Wife hates the Giants because I am a Dallas Cowboy's fan. She knows I brood when my team loses. She knows I brood when the Giant's win any Sunday against any team. She remembers that time we made love when the Cowboys beat the Giants on Thanksgiving day.

Devaluation within the hierarchy

All of this seems so disturbingly illogical yet familiar – so Maslowian, invisible, incementable. We associate ourselves within social caste networks as a shelter for our own ego. For some of these social caste networks, we operate as leaders or the the upper echelon of the hierarchy within the respective social caste network.  Yet other networks we are the followers. This Order is unspoken, understood within our subconscious.

When I ask him if there is an episode in his long relationship with Heifetz that he particularly remembers, he answers immediately. ‘Yes, although Heifetz taught me a lesson for life almost every day. Heifetz was not only a great music teacher but also a teacher of life. He taught me a hard lesson that I’ll never forget. Before I left him, after five years, I went to his house to bid him farewell. He said: “You promise me two things before you go. The first thing is that you will never dine at Maxim’s in Paris.” I was baffled. “Of course not,” I replied, “but why?” “Because one day, after a concert at Pleyel, I invited a beautiful woman to dine at Maxim’s and, as I was not wearing a bow tie, they did not let me in. So, all my friends are forbidden to go there,” he replied. “Fine, don’t worry. I won’t go there,” I assured him and I kept that promise.

‘Then I asked him what the second thing was. “You will never play with Herbert von Karajan,” was his sharp reply. In this case, I didn’t have to ask the reason. I knew that Heifetz had never gone back to play in Germany and he was very hurt about Karajan’s position during the war. I reassured him that I would do as he asked me. But then, 15 years later, Karajan invited me to play with him in Berlin. I thought that after all those years things had changed, Heifetz had probably reconsidered his position and he would understand how important it was for my career. So I went to play in Berlin. It was, of course, a wonderful experience. A few months later I kept calling Heifetz but could not get through. When I asked his secretary if anything was wrong, she replied: “Yes, of course. You played with Karajan; he will never speak to you again.”

from Tarisio

We identify our Greaterism through Otherism.

Our ego's Greaterism fuels our subconscious drive to find other creatures to identify with through a common trait that ultimately leads to division and Otherism. Still, those within our network help accomplish our ego's goal, while we accommodate reinforcement of others egos in understood quid pro quo fashion.

Our values are holier than others. Bring in the Concept of Er and Est. So many humans have to feel that we are the best at something, if not in the world, at least in our own circles. Or at the least we can settle for better than others, in general or at many things.

This is where it gets complicated to explain but it makes sense in my head. I'm trying to work on communicating more clearly so try to hang on, I beg you. We may categorically consider ourselves better at something than someone we associate with within our network – and we have to explain why to ourselves or insinuate why to others.

We're like, so much better, it's like not even worth the time of day to list out all the reasons why!

I mean, he may be an amazing public speaker, but he's just good at being fake and probably on a cocktail of performance drugs.

She may have a nicer yard than me, but she and her partner hired landscapers to do it and I did mine myself.

He may be an amazing swimmer, but his parents got him in swim class at young age.

She may have gotten into Harvard, but she fabricated a story on her application admission essay and could afford to involve herself leadership roles in so many extracurricular activities, while I had to work at TCBY after school.

He had a successful company, but he's a cog within the White Male Patriarchy (WMPs).

Yeah they that, but they that, so I that because of that.  

Formula:

Person + [acknowledged fact]
but [other understood/inferential fact]
= Dismissal

As a result, the human then adopts values/beliefs that associate more closely within the opposite of the recognized [other understood/inferential fact].

Over time, this leads to the rejection of the social caste network, and the adoption of a new network. This is how people tend to change their beliefs over time. And in time, cement themselves into a lonely ivory tower and nuclear family, devoid of social castes or hollowed friendships.

Read my eyes carefully: I'm better than you!

If only.

That passive aggressive bukkakeru can be confusing to someone unskilled at observing the Follies of Humans. It generally is easier to understand when you trace back their current action to a particular value set that was derived from and experiential episode. Are they actually responsible for how they got here? It depends on how much it benefits me.

With many peers, we can't consider ourselves to be categorically better or worse than them. At least that wouldn't make for a good friendship. I do think we can have peers who we believe have values in something we appreciate or admire, even if it contrasts ours. Too much of that appreciation though, ooobaby it's going to be a rocky or volatile friendship.

And then there are great friends, who we want the best for who you'd take a bullet for (until you get felony charges leveled against you). Those are valuable friendships but if they break and end, the negative space roils. Or mutual confidentiality make that fissure more amicable than imagined.

“Of course the summer night smiles. Three times.”

“But why does it smile, Grandmother?”

“At the follies of human beings, of course. The first smile smiles at the young, who know nothing. The second, at the fools who know too little ... And the third at the old who know too much– like me.”

In such a complex way, we actually value the values of theirs that justify our own marginal measures of comparative success. We resent them for the values they have through envy, as we have no hope of competing.

I may have canceled a Tesla preorder because a person who drove a Tesla tried to rape me. One day I stepped back and thought why do I not like this. And then I remembered why. Despite my attempt to overcome that unsound dislike, I had to coach myself to separate mutually aligned values and tastes with someone I detested. Well, let's just say I'm still trying to coach myself there. I am not above the humanized traits which I disdain.

Baggage.

I don't get upset at many things that matter to most other people. I may have an economic ideological tilt, chaotic political beliefs, thoughts/opinions on society, business, people – but I don't think those opinions really matter that much. If I were in a completely different environment or circumstance in life, I could see myself attaching to movements and belief systems completely opposite of everything believe at present. I'm not really righter than them, even though I catch myself telling myself I'm wiser than them.

People do this in early life. In their own microworlds, they naively think they can impactfully alter the momentum of the world. The fatberg doesn't really allow for that, and with further towing fatbergs across nations and oceans, a .1 degree incremental shift is a clear win. Or at least it feels like a win.

On the same level, I care about my microchallenges – the daily win – the taking from who is trying to take from me. The hurting back those who are trying to hurt me. The support and success for those whose dreams I value by their sheer attachment to me.

I view life in that same way. It's not as much about getting ahead or building something fantabulous, as defending my turf from people I view as bad because they want to take from me or my alliances. And spellcheck did not flag the word "fantabulous" – interesting!

My alliances have some basis in shared likes and mutual respect that builds a sense of reliability and camaraderie. Shared dislikes are what really shake Mother Earth more than anything.

I call it Dark Energy.