The hard truth is that perpetual social change born of innovation is inevitable. Everything has a beginning and an end; nothing lasts forever. Even stars, which seem eternal, eventually die. This common-sense deduction and scientific fact also apply to human social systems.
The Cycle of Social Systems
History shows us a progression of dominant social structures, each one born from innovation and eventually replaced by another.
* Hunter-Gatherer Societies: This model, dominant for hundreds of thousands of years in the Stone Age, was born from the simple ability to use stone tools. It came to an end with the discovery of animal domestication and agriculture, which allowed people to grow their own food and build permanent shelters out of wood.
* Tribes and Villages: With agriculture came the formation of tribes and villages based on collective organization and the distribution of goods. New innovations, like the ability to work metal and build with stone, led to the development of trade and the first market systems, towns, and cities.
* Early Market and Imperial Systems: Trade allowed for a diversity of professions beyond farming, giving rise to new roles like the trader and the warrior. The warrior would eventually take goods by force rather than trade for them, which led to the emergence of slavery in some societies. The invention of the coin further marginalized the barter system. For thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the fall of Rome, a form of social pluralism existed, with hunter-gatherer societies, city-states, and empires coexisting.
* Feudalism: This system emerged from the perfection of the warrior caste and the end of conscripted mass armies. A small, professional elite of fighters, such as the samurai in Japan or the knights in Europe, offered protection in exchange for a percentage of people’s crops or obedience. They also controlled education, keeping knowledge in languages like Latin and Greek that only the elite had time to learn. This system’s foundation was the protection-for-obedience relationship.
* The Modern Market System: The invention of gunpowder and guns made fighting a skill that didn’t require a professional elite. The printing press and the translation of works into common languages democratized knowledge, breaking the warrior caste’s monopoly on education. Feudalism’s fall, most notably with American independence, ushered in the modern market system, where the relationship is an exchange of “my time for some of your money” between employer and employee.
The Modern World and What’s Next
The Industrial Revolution solidified this new arrangement. The creation of the factory and the assembly line meant no single person created an entire product alone, solidifying the need for a mutual exchange relationship. This system is the current driver of the world, producing wonders and unparalleled progress.
However, human history is a testament to social change. No system lasts forever, and our current one can also be washed away by innovation, usually technological but sometimes environmental. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) will likely change our current system.
History shows that social change is often organic and unplanned. Major human-planned attempts at social change, such as socialism in the USSR, have largely failed. Therefore, the hard truth is that what happens next may be out of our hands.
