SOCIAL LIFE
SOCIAL STRUCTURES yin passive
social life (amiable)
yang dynamic social life
(driver)
yang passive social life (analytical) harmonious
social life yin dynamic
social life (expressive)
bond expressive hyper bond + detection domination systemization
the loose collectivistic
society
the harmonious society the tight collectivistic
society
the loose individualistic
society the tight
individualistic society
Life has many parts. Each specific part has specific enhancer and stressor.
Enhancer enhances life, and stressor disrupts social life. The instinctive reaction to enhancer that enhances life is pleasure response to continue the enhancer. Stressor that disrupts enhancer is the loss of the function of certain adaptive life part. The instinctive reaction to stressor is stress response to prompt attention to stressor, so stressor can be dealt with urgently. Stress response is expressed as the feelings of stress, anxiety, and pain. For example, a woman who has a good digest system enjoys digesting food. When the damage in her digest system induces the loss of the function of her digest system, she instinctively suffers from pain that prompts attention to the damage in her digest system, so she can deal with the damage urgently. The healing of stress response is the adoption of enhancer to replace stressor. The healthy life allows all parts of life working together constructively rather than destructively.
There are three social lives: yin, yang, and harmony. Each social life has specific social-life enhancer and social-life stressor. Social-life enhancer enhances social life, and social-life stressor disrupts social life. The instinctive reaction to social-life enhancer that enhances social life is social-life pleasure response to continue the social-life enhancer, so the enhancers enhance social life with pleasure response. Social-life stressor that disrupts social life causes the loss of the function of certain adaptive social life. The instinctive reaction to social-life stressor is social-life stress response to prompt attention to social-life stressor, so social-life stressor can be dealt with urgently. The symptom of social-life stress response is the feeling of stress and anxiety, so the stressors disrupt social life with stress response. The action of social-life stressor is social-life sin. The healing of social-life stress response is the adoption of social-life enhancer to replace social-life stressor. The healthy social life allows all three of social lives working together constructively rather than destructively.
The social-life enhancers for adult feminine social life are bond and expressive. The instinctive reaction to bond and expressive that enhance collectivistic social life is collectivistic social-life pleasure response to continue collectivistic relation.
Collectivistic social-life stressor that disrupts collectivistic social life consists of disconnection and injustice that cause the losses of bond and expressive, respectively. The instinctive reaction to collectivistic social-life stressor is collectivistic social-life stress response, consisting of despair and paranoid to prompt attention to the social-life stressors of disconnection and injustice, respectively, so the social-life stressors can be dealt with urgently. The action of collectivistic social-life stressor is collectivistic social-life sin, consisting of disconnection sin and injustice sin. The fundamental social unit is collectivistic social group. A person who has the collectivistic social life is a collectivistic lifer. For example, a woman who is a collectivistic lifer enjoys collectivistic relation. When injustice induces the loss of her collectivistic relation, she suffers instinctively from paranoid that prompt attention to the injustice, so she can deal with the injustice immediately. When she induces injustice, she commits injustice sin that causes paranoid.
The social-life enhancers for adult masculine social life are systemization and domination. The instinctive reaction to systemization and domination that enhance individualistic social life is individualistic social-life pleasure response to continue individualistic achievement. Individualistic social-life stressor that disrupts individualistic social life consists of disorganization and repression that cause the losses of systemization and domination, respectively. The instinctive reaction to individualistic
social-life stressor is individualistic social-life stress response, consisting of anxiety and unfulfillment to prompt attention to the social-life stressors of disorganization and repression, respectively, so the social-life stressors can be dealt with urgently. The action of individualistic social-life stressor is individualistic social-life sin, consisting of disorganization sin and repression sin. A person who has the individualistic social life is an individualistic lifer. For example, a man who is an individualistic lifer enjoys individualistic achievement. When repression induces his loss of individualistic achievement, he suffers instinctively from unfulfillment that prompts attention to the repression, so he can deals with the repression urgently. When he induces repression, he commits repression sin that causes unfulfillment.
The social-life enhancer for harmonious social life is harmonious cooperation that lowers the conflicts in social interaction produces highly productive cooperation among all individuals in only a small social group, and exists only in human. Harmonious cooperation consists of hyper bond and hyper detection. (Hyper detection as theory of mind is the enhancer for the detection of lie within both self and other people.) The instinctive reaction to hyper bond and hyper detection that enhance harmonious cooperation is harmonious social-life pleasure response to continue harmonious cooperation. Harmonious social-life stressor that disrupts harmonious social-life enhancer consists of estrangement and enlargement that cause the losses of hyper bond and hyper detection, respectively. Enlargement from a small social group to a large social group causes the disruption of hyper detection, because in a large social group, a cheater is more difficult to be detected, and is able to avoid the repetition of cheating to the same person. The instinctive reaction to harmonious social-life stressor is harmonious social-life stress response, as alienation to prompt attention to the social-life stressors of estrangement and enlargement, respectively, so the social-life stressors can be dealt with urgently. The actions of estrangement and enlargement are estrangement sin and enlargement sin that cause the social-life stress responses of alienation. A person who has the harmonious social life is a harmonious lifer. For example, a man who is a harmonious lifer enjoys harmonious cooperation. When estrangement and enlargement induce the loss of his harmonious cooperation, he suffers instinctively from alienation that prompts attention to the estrangement and enlargement, so he can deal with the estrangement and enlargement urgently. When he induces estrangement and enlargement, he commits estrangement sin and enlargement sin that cause alienation. Alienation is not a typical mental disorder.
Alienation is an existential problem for an individual to exist in a large and non-harmonious society. There is no distinctive defensive survival instinct as the mental overreaction to the stressors of estrangement and enlargement. The reaction is simply changing from the harmonious social life to the yin or yang social life. The table below describes all three social lives.
The Three Social Lives
Social-life enhancer collectivistic relation individualistic achievement harmonious cooperation Social-life enhancer
Lifer (Person) collectivistic individualistic harmonious
Society collectivistic individualistic harmonious
Different social lives have different rules, so social-life sin as the violation of rules from a different society is inevitable. To all pigs, eating pork is a sin, and to most humans, eating pork is not a sin. The human society has different social lives (collectivistic, individualistic, and harmonious social lives), which have different rules, so social-life sins are inevitable. The severity of social-life sins decreases with increasing communication and checks and balances among social lives.
4.3.2. The Interactions of Social Lives
A dominated society has only one dominant social life. There are the collectivistic dominant society, the individualistic dominant society, and the harmonious dominant society.
In the collectivistic dominant society, bond and expressive are the top priorities, disconnection and injustice are forbidden. Human relation is much more important than systemizing legal laws. Individual prominence is repressed. External appropriate behave is much more important than inner harmony. The society is a large social group.
Disorganization, repression, estrangement, and enlargement of social group are allowed sins.
Anxiety, unfulfillment, estrangement, and alienation are acceptable stress responses. The collectivistic dominant society includes Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, and socialism.
In the individualistic dominant society, systemization and domination are the top priorities, and disorganization and repression are forbidden. Individual pursuit of perfection and domination can override social bonds. The hierarchy based on individualistic achievement is much more important than equality. The pursuit of perfection is more important than inner harmony. The society is a large social group. Disconnection, injustice, estrangement, and enlargement of social group are allowed sins. Despair, paranoid, and alienation are acceptable stress responses. The individualistic dominant society includes Classical Greek Society and capitalism.
In the harmonious dominant society, hyper bond and hyper detection are the top priorities, and estrangement and enlargement of basic social group are forbidden.
Unrestricted by social bond, individual can move readily from one small social group to another small social group. A small harmonious social group does not need moral code for justice, does not need systemization for the improvement of living standard, and does not domination to establish hierarchy. Disconnection, injustice, disorganization, and repression are allowed sins. Despair, paranoid, anxiety, and unfulfillment are acceptable stress responses. The harmonious dominant society includes Christianity, Buddhism, and Daoism.
A peaceful unified multi-social life society consisting of the collectivistic, individualistic, and harmonious social lives has the balanced social life. In the balanced social life, collectivistic relation is not violated severely by individualistic achievement and harmonious cooperation, individualistic achievement is not repressed severely by collectivistic relation and harmonious cooperation, and harmonious cooperation is not disharmonized severely by collectivistic relation and individualistic achievement.
To have a balanced social life, a peaceful society must have a continuous checks and balances process, so all social lives have acceptable existences. An unbalanced multi-social life society does not have good checks and balances process to find acceptable existences for all social lives. For example, in traditional marriage, husband is responsible for the individualistic life for individualistic achievement to achieve social status and wealth, while wife is responsible for the collectivistic relation of family. In a balanced marriage, the individualistic achievement by husband is not repressed by the collectivistic relation by wife, while the collectivistic relation by wife is not violated by the individualistic achievement by husband. A balanced marriage requires continuous checks and balances, so both collectivistic life and individualistic life have acceptable existences in marriage. In an unbalanced family, the individualistic achievement by husband is repressed by the collectivistic relation by wife, and/or the collectivistic relation by wife is violated by the individualistic achievement by husband. An unbalanced marriage does not have good checks and balances process to find acceptable existences for both collectivistic life and individualistic life. A balanced marriage has good checks and balances to work out acceptable effort, time, and risk for collectivistic relation and individualistic achievement, while an unbalanced marriage does not have good checks and balances. In dysfunctional marriage, one or both of the social lives are dysfunctional.
4.3.3. The Enforcements of the Social Lives
Healthy society and individual in terms of social life enforce the adoption of social-life enhancer and the avoidance of social-life stressor. The enforcement originates from the memories of pleasure response and stress response, social reward and punishment, and faith.
The memory of social-life pleasure response enforces the adoption of enhancer, while the memory of social-life stress response enforces the avoidance of stressor. The process can be manifested by the memories of extreme social-life stress response and pleasure response.
The memory of extreme social-life stress response leads to posttraumatic stress stressor (PTSD), involving painful persistent re-experience of traumatic stress response, such as extreme paranoid, despair, repression, anxiety, and alienation. The extreme stress responses of paranoid, despair, repression, anxiety, and alienation are the sudden extreme damages to collectivistic relation, individualistic achievement, and harmonious cooperation, respectively, by death or violence. The re-experience is triggered by a similar experience to make the
memory of the original painful traumatic experience even more painful. The re-experiencing traumatic re-experiencing brings about extreme avoidance and hyper-sensitivity.
In PTSD, the re-experience of extreme stress response greatly damages the ability for normal life. The memory of normal social-life stress response enforces the avoidance of social-life stressor without damaging the ability for normal life.
The memory of extreme social-life pleasure response brings about post peak experience enhancer (PPEF), involving happy persistent re-experiencing of social-life pleasure response, such as extreme collectivistic relation, individualistic achievement, and harmonious cooperation. Peak experiences are described by American psychologist and philosopher Abraham H. Maslow[79] as especially joyous and exciting moments in life, involving sudden feelings of intense pleasure response and well-being, wonder, and awe.
The peak experience of collectivistic relation is the pleasure response for sudden extraordinary wellbeing in social togetherness. The peak experience of individualistic achievement is the pleasure response for sudden extraordinary individualistic achievement far above ordinary individualistic achievement. The peak experience of harmonious cooperation is the social pleasure response for sudden extraordinary mutual empathy and empowerment or the personal pleasure response for the sudden extraordinary sense of unity without self. The re-experience is triggered by a similar experience to make the memory of the happy original peak experience even happier. In PPEF, the re-experience of peak experience enforces the active participation and the confidence in social-life enhancer. The memories of many experiences of normal social-life pleasure response can also enforce the active participation and the confidence in social-life enhancer.
Society rewards enhancer as virtue, and punishes stressor as sin. The collectivistic society rewards collectivistic relation, and punishes injustice and disconnection as sins. The individualistic society rewards individualistic achievement as virtue, and punishes repression and disorganization as sins. The harmonious society rewards harmonious cooperation as virtue, and punishes enlargement and estrangement as sins.
As soon as a specific social life is established by the combination of memory and social enforcement, the faith in the social life can continue the enforcement even without the successful social life. Since social life enhanced by enhancer is often interrupted, the faith in a specific social life is important to continue the social life.
4.4. Human Evolution
Diverging from the peacemaking bonobo-like common ancestor, the early human ancestors were basically bipedal bonobos whose habitat changed from hospitable forest to hospitable woodland. Living in hospitable woodland, early human ancestors were bipedal and harmonious. Feeding on fruits from bushes and low branches forced Ardi to walk on two legs often. When a group fanned out to find food, the continuous gestural communication from bipedal early human ancestors’ free hands coordinated individuals
effectively. The improvement of gestural communication led eventually to the emergence of the harmonious social life as indicated by the absence of large sharp canine teeth for fighting.
About 14 millions years ago, the progressively drier and cooler climate resulted in the decrease of tree-density in forest. The decrease of tree-density decreased food resource and security for apes. The original ape was the orangutan-like common ancestor with the best food resource and security in dense forest. Orangutan is the solitary ape that has the loose social structure without the support of tight social group. The slight decrease of tree-density in forest by climate change caused the first split from the orangutan-like common ancestor to produce the bonobo-like common ancestor with the second best food resource and security. It needed the support of the matriarch collectivistic society for collectivistic relation to survive. Bonobo is the peacemaking ape without the strong need to fight for food. The further decrease in tree-density in some forests to become diverse forests caused the second split from the bonobo-like common ancestor to produce gorilla. Gorilla is the loyal ape that has the patriarch collectivistic society for collectivistic relation with strong loyalty to their dominatingly large male leader for protection to survive. The appearance of woodland caused the third split from the bonobo-like common ancestor to produce the bipedal human ancestor, who used free hands for the improvement in gestural communication to survive in hospitable woodland.
The improvement in communication led eventually to the harmonious social life with the harmonious society. Human is the harmonious ape. Near the central Africa, the inhospitable woodland from further decrease in tree-density caused the fourth split from the bonobo-like common ancestor to produce chimpanzee. Chimpanzee is the aggressive ape that has the patriarch individualistic society for individualistic achievement with individual and group aggression to survive in inhospitable woodland.
During hominid evolution, the usage of tools and the successful harmonious society based on the conscience instinct (the combination of hyper bond and hyper detection) allowed the Homo to become highly successful species adaptable in diverse environments. The prehistoric human society was the harmonious hunter-gatherer society.