Credentials

A secular and free society relies on group boundaries that are defended in part by credentials. Universities are the arbitrators of who is allowed into professional, academic and scientific communities. University admission is limited to students with high IQs and demonstrated ability to learn, pass exams and affiliate with others. The credentialing system works well, so long as governments, professions and private industry respected the authority of universities and help with funding. Universities also required separation and protection from the community at large. Campuses are often spacious with lawns and shrubs. Campuses provided residences for students and sufficient services so that students could live apart from surrounding communities. Campuses have been more or less pleasant, places to live and work.

Other group boundaries are expressions of wealth and privilege. Success depends on who you know more than what you know. When a society is described as traditional, social status and mobility are strictly linked to the status of your family and your mate. "Traditional" means the groups within the society are well defined and the boundaries that separate groups of different social status are well defended. Social privileges are linked to economic privileges so that wealth is distributed in traditional societies according to social status.

Communities of humans divide themselves into classes with rules about who interacts with whom. Behavior protocols are well defined in terms of etiquette, privileges and duties. The nice aspect of every culture involves recreational and social privileges. When you qualify, you are invited to the party, the prom, the golf club, the service club, or the secret society. When you are educated and initiated, you enjoy the opera, ballet, theater, and symphony concert.  These cultural events have marked the boundary between the aristocrats and the commoners and more recently between the educated and affluent middle class and the rest of the community.

An ideal of free and democratic states is to recognize the merit and ability of individuals and allow social mobility based on learning and achievement. Racial and ethnic boundaries, at least in the ideal model, are undesirable and are suppressed by social policy, law and the good will of citizens. American self-made heroes such as astronaut and Senator, John Glenn, advised young Americans that they can achieve anything they want; that intelligence, courage and determination can overcome all obstacles

While status based on merit and accomplishment is the aspiration of an egalitarian society, the reality is somewhat different. The growth of a middle class of "self-made" men and women has shaped free societies and a large, thriving and proactive middle class is essential for the survival of free, secular societies. While there is an undeniable ethos of individual freedom in the best countries, human nature does not change. Group rules and boundaries remain in place. Instead of a rather simple traditional society with three class groups, we now have elaborately stratified societies with hierarchies built inside of hierarchies. The society is partitioned horizontally and vertically to keep incompatible groups separate. 

An emergent problem is that people with no credentials and no respect for education or university authority will attempt to establish competitive “authority” at little expense, with little or no education. Why study molecular biology for 12 years and earn a PhD when you can join a religious group and in a week or two become an expert in intelligent design?

Why accept the discipline of civil behavior when you can destroy civility and seize control with guns, bombs and aggressive mobs?

Why respect the sovereignty of another nation and negotiate agreements when you can send troops to destroy and replace their institutions with your own?

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Group Dynamics

Group Dynamics is part of the  Psychology & Philosophy series, developed by Persona Digital Books. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Group Dynamics published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books. The most recent date of publication is 2010.  The URL to the book description is http://www.personadigital.net/Persona/groupdynamics/