Hierarchical Thinking
Do we have a tendency as humans to rank things? Is it innate? Or is it a cultural phenomenon we have developed and passed down? That may be a chicken or egg question. Or, one we can never answer.
Nonetheless, we love to rank things, all kinds of things. Living things, people, songs, art, sports teams, ideas, dog breeds, professions…I could go on ad infinitum. And we use all kinds of characteristics to evaluate how to rank these things.
Is there a practical value in ranking everything in this way? I’m not sure. But maybe in some situations. Does our penchant for ranking everything create any problems? I can think of a few.
Could it just be an exercise in bias? That no matter who we are we tend to rank ourselves or the things that align with our preferences as the highest, best, or most important? And then we confuse those rankings as being objective or pointing to some “natural order”?
Why have humans ranked ourselves as the highest or most intelligent species on the planet? Western culture is full of references to lesser species or lower life forms. Isn’t it a little self-serving to identify ourselves as the highest and most important? Especially when we use our own conception of intelligence as if it were an objective concept by which to evaluate such things? What has it led us to do? Have we prioritized the rights of humans over every other type of living being, much to their detriment? Has it enabled us to feel morally right about subjugating and exploiting other species? Or to confidently make decisions that affect them without merely considering them?
Why have white men placed themselves at the apex of human intelligence? Was it just in terms of human intelligence or everything? For centuries, didn’t white men consider themselves superior to every other kind of human in every way? I’m sure they did rigorous studies to ascertain their place at the top rung of the human ladder. I mean, why else would they have organized societies in the way they have if this weren’t the “natural order”?
And how has that worked out? Pretty fantastically for some white men. Not so fantastically for almost everyone else. What about the rest of us? What can we do? Can we think differently?
It is hard not to wonder what life would be like for all of us if we weren’t such hierarchical thinkers. Can we even imagine it? How about a thought experiment? A different kind of thought experiment? Not one where we take a hypothetical idea and ponder the possible consequences of it. But one where we try thinking in a different way. One where we experiment with the opposite of hierarchical thinking. Is there an opposite of hierarchical thinking? Or am I just thinking dualistically here? Maybe there are many different ways that we could think that aren’t hierarchical in nature.
Maybe that is something to think about.