The irreversibility of institutional change
The development of human society is accompanied by various institutional changes, and if people live under a certain system for a long time, this system may have an impact on human beings themselves. That is, human beings and institutions have a certain mutual influence, for example, the change of the marriage system in primitive society.
In ancient times, human beings were closely related to marriage, and it has always been like this, so naturally there will be no problems. However, once the system of close relatives is moved from the system of close relatives to the system of distant relatives and continues to operate for a long time, this system of distant relatives will have a certain degree of irreversibility. For example, the change in the concept of marriage is one of them, the long-term status of distant relatives will naturally produce a more reasonable concept of distant relatives, which will naturally hinder the return of the distant relatives marriage system to the close relatives marriage system.
The main obstacle is genetic variation. Our genes are in stable variation, and the variation of effective genes is divided into recessive gene variation and dominant gene variation, and most of the variations are harmful variations. Deleterious variations in dominant valid genes can manifest themselves immediately, leading to the elimination of individuals.
The harmful mutation of recessive effective genes can only be reflected when two identical recessive effective genes are paired together. Therefore, it is not possible to immediately reflect the harmful variation of recessive effective genes, and the individuals who have such genetic mutations will naturally not be eliminated. As a result, it is conceivable that such recessive effective gene deleterious variants will be passed on to the next generation. As the time of distant marriage continues, there will be more and more such harmful recessive gene variations. As a result, once people are no longer distant relatives, but return to inbred marriage, a large number of recessive harmful genes that have existed in people's DNA will be successfully matched, and the harmfulness will be reflected, resulting in a large increase in the probability of malformation or other harmful conditions in the offspring of the child, which will make people fear inbred marriage. This means that the marriage system is irreversible from consanguineous marriage to distant marriage, and it is the numerous recessive harmful gene mutations accumulated during the period of distant marriage that hinders the return of distant relatives to consanguineous marriage. During the period of consanguineous marriage, recessive harmful gene mutations occur with probability, but they do not accumulate in large quantities. Therefore, if the status of consanguineous marriage is always like this, there is not much disadvantage compared to distant marriage.
The change of people's consanguineous marriage system is due to the increase in the size of human groups and the improvement of intelligence. In order to maintain good relations, friendly alliance tribes have carried out creative and active reforms of the marriage system, forcing men and women between tribes to marry each other to bring each other closer and strengthen each other's strength. So as to work together to exterminate other tribes. This kind of innovation in the marriage system should set off a new ethnic group elimination, that is, the tribes that have carried out this kind of marriage system innovation have eliminated the tribes that have not yet carried out this kind of marriage system innovation. Since then, distant marriage has become the common pattern.
The author gives an example of the change in the marriage system, mainly to facilitate our understanding of the irreversibility of the system change. The so-called natural righteousness is actually the result of long-term operation, and it is not the beginning of the process.
We can also feel this irreversibility through the change of the agrarian system. When we talk about the reform of the cultivated land system, we already know that the reform of the cultivated land system is to conform to human nature. Human nature is gradually changing, and our system naturally needs to change with it. For example, in the case of collective life or labor, the fruits are not completely distributed according to work, or even at all, the benefits are not distributed according to work or according to the pay. The result is that those who give little or no can get the same gain, that is, collective life can give people a free ride, which is naturally not conducive to the normal evolution of the population. This means that the production of lazy genes is not harmful to the individual (harmful to the group), and there are certain relative benefits, this lazy gene will not be eliminated, and will gradually increase, which means that the temperament of the group is changing. In other words, the old system is no longer suitable.
Traits such as laziness belong to selfishness, and long-term group life is conducive to the development of selfish genes. Due to the high intelligence of human beings, people will discover the selfishness of others, resulting in psychological imbalance, and the essential meaning of not suffering from inequality is that people care more about fairness or equality. This means that people even don't have selfish genes, and they will also manifest similar selfishness through their nature. In other words, when selfish genes have not been widely popularized, people have more commonly shown selfishness or quasi-selfishness. The original collective life or collective labor is not good to continue, and it has become an inevitable trend to move towards change.
The system conforms to the changes in human nature, avoids things conducive to selfish behavior such as free-riding, and no longer allows selfish behavior to take advantage, and selfish genes no longer have obvious advantages at this time. It is conducive to curbing the spread and development of human selfish genes, and allows the population to retain as much as possible the collectivist spirit of dedication to the collective for the nation or the interests of the country.
Our sense of responsibility or dedication to our family or nation is rooted in the long collective life of our ancestors, which is naturally achieved through the competition for survival between ethnic groups. If individuals in a group do not have enough responsibility or dedication to the group, this will lead to the demise of the group. Even a small number of individuals in a group lack a sense of responsibility or dedication to the group, which can lead to the demise of the group. In short, the phenomenon of ethnic extinction brought about by the brutal competition for ethnic survival eliminated the selfish genes produced by the genetic mutation of individual ethnic groups, and the elimination of such individual selfish genes was achieved through the extinction of ethnic groups.
Any collective life or labor provides the conditions for indiscriminate refill, and collective life or labor is conducive to the survival and reproduction of individuals carrying selfish genes. Long-term collective life or labor will naturally lead to an increasing proportion of individuals carrying selfish genes. Therefore, timely changes in the mode of life and production can curb the continued development of ethnic genes in the direction of selfishness.
Private ownership and family-based labor or the market economy are effective systems to avoid the big pot of rice, which can effectively curb the spread of selfish genes and allow groups to maintain as many genes as possible of their own dedication or sense of responsibility. In other words, in order for people not to be selfish, we must assume that the premise is that everyone is selfish, and design a social system that is not conducive to selfish genes. For example, try not to advertise that good people give more, because this is not conducive to the survival of good people. In normal times, the impulse of good people to give is curbed to ensure that more people are willing to give in times of crisis, so as to maximize the survival of the ethnic group.
It is particularly important not to overdraw the dedication or sense of responsibility that people have inherited from the primitive group society, which is related to the sustainable development of the community. Therefore, we must not overdraw people's dedication or sense of responsibility when designing the system, so that people with dedication or responsibility can survive better.
Unfortunately, when we design our systems, it is often difficult to avoid letting selfish genes take advantage, which is a long-standing problem in human society. In the age of savagery, selfish genes were eliminated through the life-and-death competition of the race. After entering a civilized society, although our institutional design is indeed developing in the direction of avoiding the advantage of selfish genes, it is difficult to completely avoid the advantage of selfish genes. In particular, there are times when the system design is very unreasonable, and the selfish gene is particularly advantageous. For similar groups of people, the longer they enter a civilized society, the more widespread the selfish gene becomes. For example, the Germanic groups in Europe entered the civilized society later than the Latins, and their selfish genes were less popular than the Latins, and they retained more dedication genes, so in modern society, the Germanic armies were significantly stronger than the Latins.
The ancients sometimes did not understand the irreversibility of certain systems, and imagined attempts to return, such as Wang Mang's forced return to the Western Zhou system. This kind of return is undoubtedly disastrous, the various circumstances are different, the conditions are different, and even the nature of human beings is different, how can it be possible to successfully return!
Through the content of this section, we can feel the influence of the system on human nature, and the influence of human nature on the system. What is a good system? A system that conforms to human nature is a good system. A system that does not allow selfish genes to take advantage of is a good system.