When we are in balance, like standing in the center of a seesaw, looking outward, noticing new qualia, we can improve our qualiadelic selection.
Animals are here, in balance, often, but not always. Alphas, perhaps less often, for instance those in power are always at risk. Vigilance narrows focus.
Alternatively, within a hierarchy those on the sidelines can observe from a position of balance and take in a broader picture. The subdominant may not have alpha characteristics, but their characteristics are fit, and if they attain alpha, those “broad minded” traits will pass on. Indeed, an individual in balance is attractive, and for that reason alone he or she often manages to pass on genes without the attendant risks of alphadom.
Wherever culture has been broadened by the humanities and liberal arts, the emphasis has swung somewhat toward what has come to be labeled “enlightened” thought. This has meant, among other things, leveling the playing field for minorities (balanced opportunities for subdominants in the human landscape).
Ideally enlightenment will bring us into harmony with ecosystems (and with subdominant species we are exploiting). Alas, with ideals we never quite get where we want to go.
There is a point at which it becomes necessary to relax our power and to let the ideal become the source that guides us. This is as true for art as it is for science, spirituality, and governing.
Vigilance has its merits, but inevitably it must relax. The human species is alpha, but in order for ecosystems to guide us we have reexamine our idea of power. We don’t have to become a subdominant species, we just have to alter our paradigm of progress.
Progress and power fail us because of our focus on matter instead of qualia. Matter does not provide happiness while qualia does. Matter is over-valued in the narrow bubble of the human landscape, while qualia is valued accurately in the 360 degree sphere of ecosystems.
The ideal of ecosystems is a bubble that will not burst. That is real power.