Jay Hanson:
>First of all you did not know my crew. <G> Moreover, the reason they
> have skippers on boats is because they are better trained than crew
> and passengers. It's a fact of life. Human society is inherently
> hierarchical for the simple reason that it contributes to "inclusive
>fitness".
>
>Could anyone imagine democracy on a commercial airliner?
Human society does not have to be permanently hierarchical and hierarchies
do not necessarily have to be undemocratic. In their original state,
northern Aboriginal groups followed certain people because they had special
abilities - e.g. they would allow a particular person to take the lead in
hunting because he was a very good and successful hunter. However, this did
not mean that he led in other ways. The pilot of an aircraft is a little
like this. While the aircraft is flying, he clearly leads. When he is on
the ground, he is like anyone else. My point is that, in relatively simple
social situations, hierarchies exist around special circumstances or
activities, but they apply only to those. The Aboriginal hunter could not
command people to hunt with him just as the pilot cannot command people to
fly with him.
Hierarchies became more fixed and permanent as population numbers increased
and social complexity grew. While hunting and gathering societies needed
only transitory hierarchies, more complex societies needed permanent ones.
However, there is no reason on earth why these couldn't be democratic,
allowing a particular leadership limited powers and only a limited tenure.
That in many cases they became undemocratic and permanent reflects a
usurpation of the rules by a leadership, or conquest or some such thing.
During the past two centuries, a great deal of effort has been devoted to
developing methods by which complex and populous societies could maintain
essential hierarchies and still operate democratically. In my opinion, much
of this has been successful.
Ed Weick
