Structures Within Structures
It seems painfully apparent that there are structures within structures in our global society. The inner structures do not seem to have a real connection with the outer, bigger, structures that have a greater or more global influence. The whole system is designed basically on a “need to know” basis, although all structures are indeed connected, the actual connection is not really what it seems. Or, more accurately, the connection we believe they have is a false connection, for optics only, and the real connection is not easily seen.
Let me try to explain this with a few examples. People can go on with their lives, within a structure that seems normal and functional to them. They can go about their business, their employment, their schooling if in school, their daily lives of eating, playing, buying things at the mall, and so on, without having what is going on in the bigger world affecting them much. They can totally forget about all of that whirling around them, just outside of their inner structure, without giving it much thought. These structures seem to function autonomously, and maybe they do in some ways.
Some people, whose lives are deeply engaged with outer structures, may be more aware: people who work in the financial sector, import/export, military, as well as politics on the national level, but even these people do not have to be tossed around physically by the outer structures churning on a sea or ocean away from them.
Some people, of course, who are deeply engaged in some other structures, such as the citizens of Israel and Palestine at the moment (November, 2023), or people on the ground in Ukraine or other war torn segments of the world, their world may not be all that peachy these days, but the smaller structures they may be in are still not impacted clearly by the larger structures surrounding them, i.e., they are concerned about surviving, keeping alive, and finding food and shelter, not whether the US dollar will be affected by their war, or whether the stock market will crash, or if Joe Biden will get a kick back from the billions of dollars he is investing in the war effort taking place on a nationalistic level.
Their “structure” also has no impact, nor is impacted by the dozens, or thousands, of other structures surrounding them. I’m sure there are elites in Kiev who would not be all that aware of the people dying 50 miles away, while they sip French wine at their favorite outdoor cafe.
Speaking of cafes, I was having brunch this weekend with a few local friends whose adult children were just getting their lives started in the big wide world. One of these kids is a young woman who is having great success in law school. She is very talented and is doing very well. She is currently engaged to an equally successful young man (upcoming banking executive) with a bright future, and they have been discussing future housing in the area and what they might be able to afford at some point in the not-too-distant future. The days ahead certainly look rosy for these young adults, and their parents were very pleased and proud of them. But being the prophet of doom that I am, I thought it best to keep my mouth shut. I kept seeing mushroom clouds in my mind and kept having to brush these images aside so I could enjoy the brunch.
But it isn’t just denial that is coming into this idea about structures, it is the objective fact that these systems will indeed continue to function even if a mushroom cloud does develop over the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter, other than within a few hundred miles from here. There will still be lawyers, still be bankers, still be cafes to have brunch, sipping away at our wine—and there will still be the typical “blame” on things that really are not to blame.
Considering my age, and the fact I was born a mere 10 years after the war to end all wars had completed its carnage, I have formulated a different imago of the world and how it functions. I grew up during the cold war, and in a military family at that. I was, as were the kids I grew up with, very aware of pending nuclear holocaust. But I was also aware that at some time in the not-too-distant past there were not so many, nor robust, structures within structures. The world ran more or less as a half dozen or so bigger structures that encompassed a bunch of little weaker structures which were quickly and wholly affected by war, famine, supply breakdowns, economic anomalies, medical supply crises, etc. If one domino was flicked, the rest would topple over.
A feeble structure, such as a family farm, was quickly annihilated by a world war. Computers had not yet made the global scene, telecommunications had not reached any sort of high functioning mass, banking was slow and largely disconnected, there were only a few satellites circling the earth, not even so many steel structures that dominate the planet now by the tens of thousands—the Empire State Building in New York City was still considered a modern, and unique, structure.
The people on earth had not yet made a strong, almost impenetrable, set of independent structures—now they have strong, rigid, larger than life systems, and many, many of them. As mentioned earlier, these configurations almost seem to run autonomously from the rest of the world. There will always be lawyers and lawyer suites that take up an entire floor on a 100 floor “skyscraper” . . . and not just one or two, thousands of them throughout the world. I am just mentioning lawyers because that was the discussion with my friends going on for me this weekend. In fact, add any specialized system to that list, medical, manufacturing, IT, AI, computers, banking, food industry, media, agriculture, on and on and on. These are powerful structures that will not just collapse even with massive shaking.
Or will they?
Think of the Death Star in Star Wars. That massive structure was taken down by one well placed minimal charge. This is a common archetypal theme that goes all the way back to David and his slingshot. The bigger the monster, the harder they fall, and all it takes is one well-placed whack.
Is that what we are facing? I find it interesting that after Covid most people on our side of the fence were screaming the end is nigh. The supply chain will undoubtedly collapse, the economy will undoubtedly crumble into oblivion. Disease and famine will undoubtedly spread like wildfire. None of this has really happened. Is this because it takes longer for these powerful rigid structures to become compromised? Has the damage been done, and it is only a matter of time before it collapses, and collapses with a really big bang?
There is something to be said for redundancy. The more structures there are, the more difficult it will be to take them all out at once. There will always be another to take a failed one’s place. But isn’t that what they said about the Titanic and its redundant bulkheads? Of course, there is much speculation that the Titanic was actually designed to fail. Are our systems designed to fail? Who’s to say. I suppose we can just sit back, relax, and wait and see. Slip another shrimp on the barbie and open up another cold bottle of brew. The show is about to begin, or is it actually about to end?
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🎪 And this may explain why so many in our society remain in ignorant bliss within their smaller structures while others of us drive ourselves to near madness because we can’t ignore the larger structures, integrated throughout and ultimately controlling the entire global circus.
I find myself going, “Ah ha, I hadn’t thought of it in this way until now”, when I read many of your posts and, inevitably, I’m impressed with your analogous take on a given situation. I also wonder why I had never thought of it in such a way before!
Reading this today, I immediately thought of my children and what I feel is the enormous gulf of difference between that with which they consume themselves daily vs what I feel they are completely clueless and uninterested about. And it is so definitely about “structures”. They live within well-defined structures of their immediate home. Their daily actions and thought processes are centered around their house, their child/children, their work, much of which has been moved into their homes now, and immediate family and a few friends, all of whom live close by and are of physical/logistical importance to the maintaining of their immediate life structure. Their awareness of the larger structure of the country or the world; even their actual home town, is “out there”, but unless an event affects or intrudes on what I see as their “isolated structure”, it holds little relevance to their day to day activities. I’m always surprised, though not as much anymore, at something I’ll tell them in conversation, which I assume is common knowledge, only to find they’ve never heard anything of it. Granted, they are busy with child-rearing and work details and I’m sure are more astute on the intricacies of the real estate market and interest rates (DIL is an agent) or the most recent trending thing on Instagram, or the latest Disney movie. They speak of the obstacles to the renewal of the program grant at the school (D is a program director/professor at a local university), but even within these structures, I see how detached they are from the bigger picture/structure of the elements of their lives. They truly deal with only what immediately affects them. They seem to hold no real interest or are engaged in anything outside that immediate structure.
Over the past 24 years of my interaction with this family, I’ve often considered the actual geographical regional differences in my involvement with bigger, outer structures in my world vs their close, limited involvement with anything outside theirs. Could it be that due to weather and temps, folks living in warmer climates tend to be out and about more than those inhabiting colder climes? I did find, living up north for quite a few years, that people were generally more “closed” socially; not as warm, friendly and outgoing as my southern colleagues and acquaintances. This is possibly because it’s too cold for so many months to leave the house unless absolutely necessary. Or, are some people simply more family-centric and don’t have as much need for friends for fellowship and entertainment?
The difference is quite clear between how I grew up and the result I see in my partner’s family members. In the south, everyone is curious (nosy!) about what all goes on in our neighborhoods, churches, in town, at our work places, the stores in which we shop. We converse (small talk and pleasantries) with our postman, our grocery clerk we see daily or weekly, we have golf buddies and various club friends, folks we interact within charitable efforts in our communities, and generally it is touted that we don’t meet a stranger, at least until we’ve spoken to or held a door open for someone. That’s my view of my interaction within my world structure. I doubt my kids even know the name of their postman. Possibly they know the name of the key director and maybe one or two caretakers at their child’s daycare facility. But I’ve been to some of the children’s after school activities and I see no interaction between them with other parents. It’s in and out. A square checked on their daily list of “to dos”. I sense no engagement within even their small structures, so it makes sense there is no interest in the outer, larger, more globally integrated structures.
On a larger scale, and I’m sure because I have more time now, am a naturally curious person and I also read voraciously, I’m quite informed about national and global happenings and how the larger structures of our world trickle down to affect our more immediate structures. I’ve even found this minimizes, to some degree, my interest in the more mundane happenings of the smaller, closer to home structures. I find the smaller structure happenings a bit shallow and holding less meaning for me these days. This is perhaps a blessing and a curse.
Before the advent of today’s 24-hour media cycle, humans of yesteryear hardly knew that other humans over 50 miles away from them even existed. Much less in other countries across the globe. How necessary was it to know about different, larger structures? And even today, does this knowledge and/or connection to these structures truly benefit us or rather just cause us undue anxiety and generate feelings of helplessness and depression at a world so large, with such complicated challenges, that we are torn between a perceived need for connection to it all, yet an overwhelm at where this leaves us; totally unconnected to anything meaningful. Have we only learned how small and insignificant we really are in the grand structure of it all? Is there some truth and even some mental/emotional safety in the “ignorance is bliss” lifestyle?
Thanks, Todd; you always provide me a new perspective on important thoughts! I’m not sure I’ve come to any conclusions on this topic but it helps me better understand my own angst with myself and my thoughts about my place within the structures. Forgive the ramble; it’s how my brain works things into words.
When I am at our cabin near Minden, it doesn't feel like the world is going to end. When I drive along Lakeshore Boulevard under the Gardiner Expressway, it does.