Chapter 17. Magic Carpet Ride

“Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.”—Albert Einstein


As physical science reduces matter to smaller components to gain understanding, so does behavior science reduce complex to simple. A symphony goes from the combined effort of the orchestra to the coincident efforts of individuals, to a composite of means designed to produce variety of goals all intended to remove uneasiness in order to increase survival. The boson, today’s smallest physical particle, is analogous to the conceptual wish to stay alive, which is the basic element in the mental world. From that concept, with the addition of means, ingenuity, talent, and energy we reach the limits of the possibilities of individual action.

But it does not stop there. Individuals form groups. Not only can people tie their own shoes as individuals, they can buy shoes as consumers, create shoes as producers, or trade shoes as speculators. They can create pictures of shoes, send those pictures to anywhere in the world in less than a second or to Mars in less than three minutes. You get the picture. None of that could be done by our furry ancestors.

Most of what we do is a product of society. On our own we barely survive, if at all. What causes us to group together? Here is where Mises leaves economics and enters into the general theory of human behavior. He has an explanation for how man forms societies, which if correct makes him Darwin of the mind. His explanation is logical, encompassing, and while conceptually sophisticated, is accessible to common sense.

Mankind has always appreciated the importance of society. It was likely first understood as the work of God. All societies had a religion, in which God’s rules were typically passed on through prophets, visions, or kings to the masses who were then to obey. There are possible natural causes as well, such as instincts, genetics, nationality, social evolution, or geography. And order can come through leaders, idealized or feared, most of whom feel they can intuit truth through special powers. Marx comes to mind. Society then can occur from natural causes or can be molded or pounded into shape by an idealized or coercise leader enforcing his superior values on the essentially incompetent population. This is where it becomes necessary to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Stalin had to break more than a few. Emperors and tyrants seldom have misgivings about “collateral damage”. Unfortunately, whether worshiped or simply feared, a centralized leadership will always end up breaking eggs. Power corrupts.

There are two common aspects of these various theories: 1) the nature of its action occurs outside our purview, and 2) the element, if natural, has a direct effect in itself--i.e. not mediated through reason. We do not directly see instincts, genetics, nationality or place of origin. And as Mises shows, these various elements tend to contradict themselves as they dance around the idea that the tie is conceptual, specifically, ideological. For example, Dominicans do not view themselves as Haitians although their soil is contiguous, and children separated from their families at birth do not intuit a connection with their estranged families.

Mises hypothesizes that social bonds are a product of the division of labor. People feel a connection to other people because they appreciate (consciously or preconsciously) that their ability to function and survive is exponentially increased through cooperation via the division of labor. If everyone, for example, only could mow lawns, few would get their lawns cut. No one would build the mowers, produce the fuel, distribute supplies, or keep away intruders. Without division of labor everyone would be spending their time hunting, gathering, or plundering. It was that way in the land of yore. There were not many people, and their yards were probably unkempt.

The division of labor is as close as we will ever get to something for nothing. It exponentially increases our capacity to survive. It provides the motive for an ever more complex society. Conceptually it has the common sense simplicity of Darwin’s natural selection and yet the functional capacity to explain whole societies. It is that big of a deal and accomplishes the complete theory of society with one turn of the card. It has everything one would want in a theoretical system: efficacy, simplicity, and intuitiveness.

Previous hypotheses about the nature of human sociability did not include a mental component. Action theory does; it is a combination of mental which determines a means and physical which brings it about. There is little we do that does not involve mind and body acting in synergy. It is not likely that the most critical element in our survival and the most gratifying part of our life experience happens outside of awareness. Also, Occam’s razor directs us to not include more than we need in our theories. Less is better. This favor’s Mises’ theory. Our appreciation of the power of the division of labor does it all: God does not have to get involved; a dictator does not have to break eggs; and people do not have to change their nature. We only need what is already there—people who act in their own interest and appreciate the power of social cooperation (plus a government that stays out of their way). How simple is that. How elegant. And even better, it is probably correct.

The logical consequences of this theory inverts a cause and effect relationship in social interaction. Social feelings, the positive ones that essentially make life worth living, are not the cause of social relationships; they are the result of them. We feel love for others not because some force flows out through us, but rather because an awareness comes to us. Those feelings are the emotional component of an appreciation that through an experience of working together we more efficiently improve our capacity to survive. They are the result of cooperation, not the cause of it. The term "wingman" popped into my head in this context and its function is relevant here:

“The idea behind the wingman is to add the element of mutual support to aerial combat. A wingman makes the flight both offensively and defensively more capable by increasing fire power, situational awareness, attacking an enemy threatening a comrade, and most importantly the ability to employ more dynamic tactics.”

The pilots like each other because they fly together. They do not fly together because they like each other.

I like our theory so far. We try to survive. We take action to improve our ability to do that. The division of labor geometrically improves our capacity to do so and our awareness of this leverage results in the reduction of uneasiness and increase in satisfaction which forms the basis of all social cooperation. It is also the source of all the positive emotions that makes life worthwhile. And it all happens merely by the nature of the system and the logic that it follows. No supernatural force is necessary. No coercive control is demanded. And we can leave our basic nature just as it is. Society happens for the same reason water flows downhill.