Modern societies operate through their formal institutions. These institutions are run by bureaucracies that carry out the tasks necessary for the functioning of that society. As with aging human bodies that increasingly fail to function, bureaucracies also go into decline. A sure indicator of a society’s impending demise is the breakdown of its bureaucracies.
In times of rapid change, quality of leadership is vital to the outcome of what type of society emerges. We are collectively and specifically, in such a time. What goes into good leadership? How can we tell if someone has the leadership qualities needed to guide us forward? These questions confront us every time we go to the ballot box to choose new leaders or when we decide which organizations to support or who to follow.
The Putin/Russian invasion of Ukraine is the physical manifestation of an asymmetrical world war that began in modern times with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but with roots going father and deeper to the fundamental nature of who we are as a species.
What is Putin really doing in this struggle with Ukraine? Let’s take a moment and pan outward… let’s talk about the big picture and the clues to be found there.
At this moment the greatest danger to a potential global war is the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine with the possibility of quickly escalating into a nuclear war. This is not hyperbole.
The history of the United States has been a cyclical struggle between democratic and class control. It is a history of rising democracy as stated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution United States.
Humans and all hominids before humans were – and are – the maker of tools. The two qualities that separate humans from all other species on this planet are our ability to create technology and to create the systems that technology requires. Technology is the catalyst for cultural change. The process of political, economic, and social adjustment to these technological changes is cultural evolution.
Cultural evolution can be seen clearly in the history of Judaism. The beginning of Judaism can be traced to the first civilization, the Sumerian, over 5000 years ago. Some of the Sumerian Gilgamesh tales are incorporated into the Torah and known as the book of Geneses in the Christian Old Testament. The tribes of Abraham migrated from the Tigris Euphrates to the Levant. There they built a civilization centered around Jerusalem. The Israelis developed the second monotheistic religion in the world (after Zoroastrianism). The Jewish culture was built around its religion and unified tribal loyalty in society. Israelites had been expelled from Jerusalem by conquerors several times.
Curiosity is the desire to know. The curiosity trait is universal and is critical in the cultural evolution of human society. It is that sense of wonder that we are born with. We all possess it, and like other basic truths, we seldom give the concept any thought – yet it is a prime component of who we are both as individuals and as a species. Curiosity transcends species. It is that universal quality of wanting to know and understand the unknown.
