So many see the world as competing -isms. Capitalism takes on socialism and communism, with authoritarianism…

So many see the world as competing -isms. Capitalism takes on socialism and communism, with authoritarianism now the flavour of the month too. The underlying belief here is that societies are like computers, with an operating system. But where do you plug in the USB? /1

As somebody who works on the inside of governance, I sometime challenge people to show me where the -ism in question physically is. Where’s the USB port where you can install a different -ism? /2

There isn’t one. Societies aren’t ‘systems’. Systems are academic, analytical devices. Black-boxed ways to try to capture the multiplicity of social things going on at any given time. /3

So often I see a sort of triumphant assertion that ‘capitalism’ is the cause of our woes. Like that’s job done, we’ve found the cause. Did you know there is no universal agreed definition of what capitalism even is? That’s because it’s a fiction. /4

It’s as slippery as an eel, because it’s nonsense. Systems thinking is lazy, ham-fisted generality. All of the -isms are just team names in the true bedrock of all societies. The battle for status. /5

Status is to societies as atoms are to matter. The root, atomic level of explanation, the foundation. Humans are social creatures, and status is the currency of sociality. Because status is your identity, as a social creature. /6

You’re literally nobody, without it. If something happens rather than nothing in a society, it’s because status made it happen. Information and facts don’t run societies. Disinformation doesn’t destroy societies. Both are proxies for status. /7

I won’t rehash the many threads I’ve done on status here, but in relation to the -isms of our everyday public debates, I think it changes how you see things fundamentally if you recognise that each of them is just a team name, in these status battles. /8

The Chinese are no more communist than the West is capitalist. All societies are functionally equivalent, they run on status. They’re all teams, branded in different ways. In a Status Premier League. /9

Ultimately they all have a King or equivalent, with an associated court or aristocracy, and the rest of the society’s status hierarchies cascade from this central hierarchy. We’re all just humans, acting socially. Battling for status, to be somebody, rather than nobody. /end